Method and apparatus for searching non-public data using a single search query

ABSTRACT

Method and apparatus for facilitating real-time searching of non-public data using a single search query are provided. Method includes facilitating reporting of availability of companion application of remote source unit to auto discovery module to enable client device to automatically discover remote source unit and to enable client device to search, in real-time, non-public data on remote source unit using single search query. Companion application is non-public application. Single search query comprises a search term. Method includes enabling automatic access to non-public data on remote source unit, by single search query. Method includes facilitating receipt, at remote source unit, of single search query with search term. Method includes, in response to single search query, searching, in real-time, non-public data on remote source unit using search term; retrieving, in real-time, non-public search result comprising one or more file names or folder names; and transmitting non-public search result in real-time.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C.§119 from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/484,170,entitled “Method and Apparatus for Searching Information on MultipleRemote Locations,” filed on May 9, 2011, and U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/570,185, entitled “Method and Apparatus forSearching Non-Public Data on Multiple Remote Source Units Using a SingleSearch Query,” filed on Dec. 13, 2011, both of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

The subject technology relates in general to searches, and moreparticularly to, searching non-public data on multiple remote computingdevices using a single search query.

BACKGROUND

A web crawler can browse and search a large number of web sites thatcontain publicly available data and then create a copy of the public webpages for later processing by a search engine to index the copied webpages. When a user makes a request to search the web, the web searchengine does not search the real web sites, but rather searches theindexed copies of the web pages and returns the search hits from theindexed copies. A web search is not a real-time search and only providespublicly available data on the web.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, a method for facilitating real-time searching ofnon-public data using a single search query is provided. The method mayinclude facilitating reporting of availability of a companionapplication of a remote source unit to an auto discovery module toenable a client device to automatically discover the remote source unitand to enable the client device to search, in real-time, non-public dataon the remote source unit using the single search query, wherein thecompanion application is a non-public application, wherein the singlesearch query comprises a search term. The method may include whileobviating facilitation of a secure remote session log-on between theremote source unit and the client device and obviating mounting of theremote source unit onto the client device, enabling automatic access tonon-public data on the remote source unit, by the single search query.The method may include facilitating receipt, at the remote source unit,of the single search query with the search term. The method may include,in response to the single search query: searching, in real-time,non-public data on the remote source unit using the search term;retrieving, in real-time, a non-public search result comprising one ormore file names or folder names; and transmitting the non-public searchresult in real-time.

In one aspect, a non-transitory machine-readable medium for facilitatingreal-time searching of non-public data using a single search query isprovided. The machine-readable medium comprises instructions. Theinstructions may include code to facilitate reporting of availability ofa companion application of a remote source unit to an auto discoverymodule to enable a client device to automatically discover the remotesource unit and to enable the client device to search, in real-time,non-public data on the remote source unit using the single search query,wherein the companion application is a non-public application, whereinthe single search query comprises a search term. The instructions mayinclude code to, while obviating facilitation of a secure remote sessionlog-on between the remote source unit and the client device andobviating mounting of the remote source unit onto the client device,enable automatic access to non-public data on the remote source unit, bythe single search query. The instructions may include code to facilitatereceipt, at the remote source unit, of the single search query with thesearch term. The instructions may include code to, in response to thesingle search query, search, in real-time, non-public data on the remotesource unit using the search term; retrieve, in real-time, a non-publicsearch result comprising one or more file names or folder names; andtransmit the non-public search result in real-time.

In one aspect, a system for facilitating real-time searching ofnon-public data using a single search query is provided. The system mayinclude one or more processors. The system may include a memorycomprising instructions. The instructions may include code to facilitatereporting of availability of a companion application of a remote sourceunit to an auto discovery module to enable a client device toautomatically discover the remote source unit and to enable the clientdevice to search, in real-time, non-public data on the remote sourceunit using the single search query, wherein the companion application isa non-public application, wherein the single search query comprises asearch term. The instructions may include code to, while obviatingfacilitation of a secure remote session log-on between the remote sourceunit and the client device and obviating mounting of the remote sourceunit onto the client device, enable automatic access to non-public dataon the remote source unit, by the single search query. The instructionsmay include code to facilitate receipt, at the remote source unit, ofthe single search query with the search term. The instructions mayinclude code to, in response to the single search query, search, inreal-time, non-public data on the remote source unit using the searchterm. The instructions may include code to retrieve, in real-time, anon-public search result comprising one or more file names or foldernames. The instructions may include code to transmit the non-publicsearch result in real-time.

In one aspect, a method for facilitating real-time searching ofnon-public data on multiple remote source units using a single searchquery is provided. The method may include automatically discovering, bythe client device, the multiple remote source units via an autodiscovery module while obviating identifying locations or addresses ofthe multiple remote source units by a user of the client device. Themethod may include facilitating provision, to the auto discovery module,of the single search query directed to the multiple remote source unitsto enable searching of non-public data simultaneously on all of themultiple remote source units based on the single search query whileobviating initiation by the client device of a secure remote sessionlog-on with each of the multiple remote source units and obviatingmounting of the multiple remote source units onto the client device. Themethod may include, in response to facilitating provision of the singlesearch query, receiving non-public search results in sequence orsimultaneously, wherein each of the non-public search results isassociated with a corresponding one of the multiple remote source units,wherein each of the non-public search results comprises one or more filenames or folder names; automatically aggregating, in real-time, thenon-public search results from a plurality of the multiple remote sourceunits; automatically ranking, in real-time, the aggregated non-publicsearch results; and facilitating displaying, in real-time, the rankednon-public search results.

In one aspect, a non-transitory machine-readable medium is provided forfacilitating real-time searching of non-public data on multiple remotesource units using a single search query. The machine-readable mediumincludes instructions. The instructions may include code toautomatically discover, by the client device, the multiple remote sourceunits via an auto discovery module while obviating identifying locationsor addresses of the multiple remote source units by a user of the clientdevice. The instructions may include code to facilitate provision, tothe auto discovery module, of the single search query directed to themultiple remote source units to enable searching of non-public datasimultaneously on all of the multiple remote source units based on thesingle search query while obviating initiation by the client device of asecure remote session log-on with each of the multiple remote sourceunits and obviating mounting of the multiple remote source units ontothe client device. The instructions may include code to in response tofacilitating provision of the single search query, receive non-publicsearch results in sequence or simultaneously, wherein each of thenon-public search results is associated with a corresponding one of themultiple remote source units, wherein each of the non-public searchresults comprises one or more file names or folder names; automaticallyaggregate, in real-time, the non-public search results from a pluralityof the multiple remote source units; automatically rank, in real-time,the aggregated non-public search results; and facilitate displaying, inreal-time, the ranked non-public search results.

In one aspect, a method is provided. The method may include receiving aninput comprising a search query and identifiers of a plurality of remotesource units, wherein each of the plurality of remote source units isassociated with a respective privacy hurdle. The method may includefacilitating transmitting, to each of the plurality of remote sourceunits, a message comprising a search request based on the search queryand an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remotesource unit. The method may include facilitating receiving, from each ofthe plurality of remote source units, a respective set of searchresults. The method may include providing for display an indication ofat least a first subset of a first respective set of search results froma first remote source unit in the plurality of remote source units. Themethod may include providing for display an indication of at least asecond subset of a second respective set of search results from a secondremote source unit in the plurality of remote source units.

In one aspect, a non-transitory machine-readable medium comprisinginstructions is provided. The instructions may include code to receivean input comprising a search query and identifiers of a plurality ofremote source units, wherein each of the plurality of remote sourceunits is associated with a respective privacy hurdle. The instructionsmay include code to facilitate transmitting, to each of the plurality ofremote source units, a message comprising a search request based on thesearch query and an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdleof the remote source unit. The instructions may include code tofacilitate receiving, from each of the plurality of remote source units,a respective set of search results. The instructions may include code toprovide for display an indication of at least a first subset of a firstrespective set of search results from a first remote source unit in theplurality of remote source units. The instructions may include code toprovide for display an indication of at least a second subset of asecond respective set of search results from a second remote source unitin the plurality of remote source units.

In one aspect, a method is provided. The method may include receiving aninput comprising a search query and identifiers of a plurality of remotesource units, wherein each of the plurality of remote source units isassociated with a respective privacy hurdle. The method may includefacilitating transmitting, to each of the plurality of remote sourceunits, a message comprising a search request based on the search queryand an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remotesource unit. The method may include facilitating receiving, at a firsttime, from a first remote source unit in the plurality of remote sourceunits, a first set of search results. The method may include providingfor display an indication of at least a first subset of the first set ofsearch results within a single display unit. The method may includefacilitating receiving, at a second time later than the first time, froma second remote source unit in the plurality of remote source units, asecond set of search results. The method may include providing fordisplay an indication of at least a second subset of the second set ofsearch results within the single display unit, while continuing toprovide for display the indication of the at least the first subset ofthe first set of search results within the single display unit.

In one aspect, a non-transitory machine-readable medium comprisinginstructions is provided. The instructions may include code to receivean input comprising a search query and identifiers of a plurality ofremote source units, wherein each of the plurality of remote sourceunits is associated with a respective privacy hurdle. The instructionsmay include code to facilitate transmitting, to each of the plurality ofremote source units, a message comprising a search request based on thesearch query and an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdleof the remote source unit. The instructions may include code tofacilitate receiving, at a first time, from a first remote source unitin the plurality of remote source units, a first set of search results.The instructions may include code to provide for display an indicationof at least a first subset of the first set of search results within asingle display unit. The instructions may include code to facilitatereceiving, at a second time later than the first time, from a secondremote source unit in the plurality of remote source units, a second setof search results. The instructions may include code to provide fordisplay an indication of at least a second subset of the second set ofsearch results within the single display unit, while continuing toprovide for display the indication of the at least the first subset ofthe first set of search results within the single display unit.

It is understood that other configurations of the subject technologywill become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from thefollowing detailed description, wherein various configurations of thesubject technology are shown and described by way of illustration. Aswill be realized, the subject technology is capable of other anddifferent configurations and its several details are capable ofmodification in various other respects, all without departing from thescope of the subject technology. Accordingly, the drawings and detaileddescription are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not asrestrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system in accordance with one aspectof the subject technology.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a remote source unit in accordance withone aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a client device in accordance with oneaspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a display at a client device inaccordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example of a display at a client device inaccordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 4C illustrates an example of a network system according to onescenario.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating an example of acomputing device.

FIG. 6A is a diagram of an example of a network system.

FIG. 6B is a diagram of another example of a network system.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a web browser window displaying searchresults in accordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a web browser window displaying aninterface for interacting with a search result in accordance with oneaspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 9A illustrates an example of a process by which a remote sourceunit including non-public data may be searched in accordance with oneaspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 9B illustrates an example of a device including instructions bywhich a remote source unit including non-public data may be searched inaccordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 9C illustrates an example of a device including modules by which aremote source unit including non-public data may be searched inaccordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 10A illustrates an example of a process by which a client devicemay search non-public data on multiple remote source units in accordancewith one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 10B illustrates an example of a device including instructions bywhich a client device may search non-public data on multiple remotesource units in accordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 10C illustrates an example of a device including modules by which aclient device may search non-public data on multiple remote source unitsin accordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 11A illustrates an example of a process for searching non-publicdata and displaying search results in accordance with one aspect of thesubject technology.

FIG. 11B illustrates an example of a device including instructions forsearching non-public data and displaying search results in accordancewith one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 11C illustrates an example of a device including modules forsearching non-public data and displaying search results in accordancewith one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 12A illustrates an example of a process for searching non-publicdata from a plurality of remote source units and displaying searchresults in accordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

FIG. 12B illustrates an example of a device including instructions forsearching non-public data from a plurality of remote source units anddisplaying search results in accordance with one aspect of the subjecttechnology.

FIG. 12C illustrates an example of a device including modules forsearching non-public data from a plurality of remote source units anddisplaying search results in accordance with one aspect of the subjecttechnology.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual block diagram of a local device virtualizationsystem, in accordance with various aspects of the subject technology.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below is intended as a description ofvarious configurations of the subject technology and is not intended torepresent the only configurations in which the subject technology may bepracticed. The appended drawings are incorporated herein and constitutea part of the detailed description. The detailed description includesspecific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understandingof the subject technology. However, it will be apparent to those skilledin the art that the subject technology may be practiced without thesespecific details. In some instances, well-known structures andcomponents are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuringthe concepts of the subject technology. Like components are labeled withidentical element numbers for ease of understanding.

In one aspect, the subject technology facilitates securely searchingnon-public data on multiple remote locations. In one aspect, the subjecttechnology allows a user to search non-public data (e.g., the user'spersonal data) from a plurality of sources with a single queryregardless of the location of the data or the originating source of thesearch request.

In order to search for data that was distributed among multiplelocations (e.g., computing devices at remote locations or network-basedor virtual source units), users are traditionally forced to firstidentify and locate each remote computing device and then proceed tosearch each remote computing device independently. Furthermore, incertain instances, systems force users to first log into each remotecomputing device via remote desktop protocols in order to run thesearch. Once the user has executed the independent searches on each ofthe remote computing devices, the user has to manually aggregate theresults and decide on the relative relevance of the results to selectthe best match to his/her search. In an advantageous aspect, the subjecttechnology can obviate these shortcomings.

An important problem arises from the fact that the search procedurevaries depending on the location/device/applications the user issearching from. More specifically, the search experience is dictated byfactors such as the operating system, network connectivity andapplications available to the user (i.e., client device) and on theremote computing devices.

Examples of some of the approaches to address the above-mentionedproblems include the following: (a) Mount each remote location (e.g.,folder/drive) onto a local file system of a client device and run asearch through the local search functionality; and (b) Remotely connectto each of the remote locations, e.g., via a remote session using aremote desktop protocol, that need to be searched and then runindependent searches on each of the remote locations.

These approaches, however, have the following shortcomings: A user mustmake a conscious decision on what locations they will search and access.As for the approach (a) above, when the remote locations are mountedinto a local file system of a client device, the search is performedlocally. This means that a significant amount of data needs to betransferred between the remote locations and the client device,resulting in a very slow process when connected over slow networks. Afor the approach (b) above, this approach does not allow a user tosearch all remote computers simultaneously with one query. Users mustlog into each remote location, search the location for the data, thenlog out from that remote location and log into the next location andrepeat the same sequence of actions at all of the remote locationssequentially. In an advantageous aspect, the subject technology canobviate these shortcomings

In one aspect, a remote computing device, whether physical or virtual,may be referred to as a remote location, a remote source unit, a remotemachine or a remote computer and vice versa. In one aspect, a clientdevice may be referred to as a client, a user device, a local device, aclient computing device, or a user and vice versa. In one aspect, asearch query may be sometimes referred to as a search command and viceversa. In one aspect, a command may be sometimes referred to as arequest or query and vice versa. In one aspect, the term non-public datamay be sometimes exchanged with the term non-public data or personaldata and vice versa.

Example of Configuration of Network System

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a configuration of the subjecttechnology in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure. A networksystem 110 may include one or more client devices 120, one or more autodiscovery servers 130, and one or more remote source units (e.g., remotelocations or virtual source units) 140A through 140N. In oneimplementation, a single machine (e.g., 190A which can be a clientdevice) may implement the functions of both the client device 120 andthe auto discovery server 130. Alternatively, different machines mayimplement the functions of each of the one or more client devices 120and the one or more auto discovery servers 130. The client devices 120and the auto discovery servers 130 may communicate with one another viahypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

Client Device

In one aspect, a client device 120 (e.g., a mobile phone or tablet) maybe the end point of the communication. In one aspect, most of therequests are initiated by the client device 120 (e.g., by the searchmodule 122 within the client device 120). A client device 120 can be,for example, any network/internet enabled device. The client device 120may be a physical machine or a virtual machine. A search module 122 ofthe client device 120 may be responsible for providing to its user auser interface to show the discovered connections and an input text boxto enable searching. The search module 122 of the client device 120 canrun an auto discovery component.

Remote Source Unit

In one aspect, there are N number of remote source units (or remotelocations/remote storage units) 140A through 140N, where N is anarbitrary integer. For example, N may be one, two, three, four, five, ormore than five. Each of the remote source units 140 can have anyoperating system and includes a companion application (e.g., 142A)installed. The remote source units 140 may include physical machines,for example, laptop computers, desktop computers, mobile phones, desktopcomputers, or home network source units. The remote source units 140 mayinclude virtual machines, source units within a virtual private network,source units within an intranet, e.g., a corporate intranet, cloud orInternet based source units, or data source units within a socialnetworking service storing, for example, photographs or comments. Remotesource units 140 can be understood as the other end points of the system110. Each companion application of a remote source unit is responsiblefor responding to the request from the client device. Each remote sourceunit 140 can run any operating system supported by its companionapplication (e.g., Windows™ 7, MAC™) Alternatively, a remote source unit140 may include a database configured to respond to commands to accessdata, e.g. SQL commands, that does not run any operating system. Remotesource units 140 have the software responsible for traversing the filesystems and indexing the documents. In addition, the remote source unitsmay include private source units, where a privacy hurdle must beovercome in order to access the private source unit. For example, inorder to access a private source unit on a personal computing device oran Internet-based personal source unit, a username or password may needto be entered. In order to access a private source unit within acorporate network, a certificate may need to be provided. While FIG. 1shows only one companion application 142A and one indexer 144A, it isunderstood that each remote source unit may include a companionapplication and an indexer.

In one implementation, the remote source units 140 communicate with theauto discover server 130 or the client device 120 over a network, e.g.,the Internet or a cellular network. The remote source units 140 maycommunicate with the auto discovery server 130 or the client device 120via Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). The autodiscovery server 130 may communicate with the client device 120 over thenetwork via hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

Companion Application

In one aspect, a companion application is installed on each of the Nremote source units 140A through 140N. A companion application cancommunicate with an auto discovery module 132 of the auto discoveryserver 130, other companion applications and one or more client devices.

In one aspect, each of the companion applications (e.g., 142A) runs onits corresponding remote source unit and it is responsible for allcommunications in and out of the corresponding remote location and forreporting its availability to the auto discovery module of the autodiscovery server. It handles and interprets the messages that a clientdevice sends over the auto discovery module. It also utilizes theavailable indexer (e.g., 144A) to retrieve relevant data (e.g., files,folders and applications) for a particular search term.

Indexer

In one aspect, a search indexer (or indexer) (e.g., 144A) is installedon each of the N remote source units. An indexer can perform differentranking and searching. The indexer runs as a part of the companionapplication utilizing operating system features. For example, theindexer can rank the documents' content by analyzing, e.g., wordfrequency distribution (i.e., the number of a search term found in adocument), file name relevance, creation date of a file, author of afile, size of a file, and/or type of a file.

In one aspect, each of the indexers (e.g., 144A) is responsible forranking the files/documents on each remote source unit. When a searchquery is received from the client device over the auto discovery moduleby a remote source unit, a companion application installed on each ofthe remote source units handles this search term and passes it onto itscorresponding indexer. The indexer searches the remote source units atthe corresponding remote location and returns ranks for the elementsmost relevant to the search term. The indexer can search the content ofthe document by creating a frequency word distribution, which identifieshow relevant the search term is to that document/file. Alternatively,the indexer can narrow down the search by only searching the file namesand not the content, or it can take into account other metadata such asfile creation dates.

In one aspect, one or more of the indexers or each of the indexers(e.g., 144A) may be configured to traverse a file system of the remotesource unit. One or more of the indexers or each of the indexers may beconfigured to index files and folders or subsets of files and folders onthe remote source unit(s). A subset of a file may be, for example, asection or a chapter of a word processing document. A subset of a foldermay be, for example, a sub-folder or a label attached to all or aportion of files within the folder.

Auto Discovery Server

In one aspect, an auto discovery server 130 includes an auto discoverymodule 132 which provides communication capabilities between all thecomponents (e.g., client devices and remote source units), even if thecomponents are not on the same network. In one aspect, the onlyrequirement is that all the components have network connectivity to theauto discovery server 130 (e.g., auto discovery module 132).

In one aspect, an auto discovery module 132 of an auto discovery server130 may run as a “middle man.” It is responsible for relaying themessages between the client devices and the remote source units. Thesemessages can be in any text format (e.g., JSON).

Example of Configuration of Remote Source units

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a remote source unit in accordance withone aspect of the subject technology. A remote source unit (e.g., 140A)may include an indexer 144A, a companion application 142A and a filesystem 270.

Indexer

An indexer 144A may include one or more different types of indexers. Forexample, indexer 1 may be a Windows™ search indexer. Indexer 2 may be acustomized indexer (e.g., a custom indexer for a remote source unitoperating with a Linux operating system). An indexer may be selected bya user of a remote source unit or by another means.

Upon receiving a search query including a search term (e.g., from asearch command handler 220), an indexer (e.g., indexer 1) may search itsremote source unit (e.g., file system 270) using the search term.Depending on the search criteria selected by a user or by the indexer,an indexer may search the file names, file folder names, the content offiles and folders, and/or the meta data of files and folders in itsremote source unit.

In one example, an indexer may determine that the search criteria is tosearch the file and folder names only, and the indexer may search thefile names and folder names using the search term. The indexer may thenreturn the file names and folder names that contain the search term inthe names. In another example, an indexer may determine that the searchcriteria is to search the contents of the files and folders, search thecontents of the files and folders and return the file names and foldernames whose contents contain the search term. In another example, theindexer may determine that the search criteria is to search the metadata of files and folders, search the meta data of the files andfolders, and return the file names and folder names whose meta datamatches the search term.

In one aspect, an indexer may rank the files and/or file folders foundwithin a given remote source unit and may continuously update theranking information as more files and/or file folders are found withinthe remote source unit or as the number of times a search term is foundin a given file and/or folder of the remote source unit increases. Foreach file or file folder found in a given remote source unit, an indexermay identify, and continuously update, associated search rankinginformation (e.g., the number of times a search term is found in a givenfile or file folder and/or percentage ranking among the files and filefolders found in a given remote source unit).

In another aspect, a companion application of one remote source unit mayact as a master and communicate with companion applications of otherremote source units to aggregate the search results among all of theremote source units and rank the files and/or file folders among allfiles and/or file folders across all of the remote source units, and themaster companion application may provide the aggregated ranking to aclient device.

In one example, an indexer may provide an indexer result that includesone or more names of the files or folders found and include any searchranking information associated with the files or folders. The file namesor folder names may be those in the file system 270 of a remote sourceunit that match the search term in the file or folder names, in thecontent of the files or folders, and/or in the meta data fields of thefiles or folders (e.g., meta data associated with a file or folder ormeta data associated with the content of a file or folder).

Remote Source Unit Network Interface Module

A companion application 142A may comprise a remote source unit networkinterface module 210 that facilitates communication to and from a clientdevice via, e.g., an auto discovery module 132 over one or more channels146A. The remote source unit network interface module 210 may be coupledto a privacy hurdle verifier 212. The privacy hurdle verifier 212 may beconfigured to verify that any external device (e.g., client device 120or auto discovery server 130) accessing data stored in the remote sourceunite 140A has permissions to access the data. For example, the privacyhurdle verifier 212 may verify that a username and password provided bythe external device are correct or that the external device has acertificate necessary to access the remote source unit 140A.

Command Handler

A companion application 142A may comprise a command handler 220 that mayreceive commands from the remote source unit network interface module210 received over the channels 146A from the auto discovery module 132.Upon receipt, the command handler 220 may determine the type of eachcommand received, the appropriate destination module, and provide thecommand to the appropriate destination module selected (e.g., 230, 240,250 or 260).

In one example, upon receiving a command, if the command handler 220determines that the command is a search command, then the commandhandler 220 forwards the command to the search command handler. If thecommand handler 220 determines that the command is an icon command, thecommand handler sends the command to an icon handler 260. If the commandhandler 220 determines that the command is an image/preview command, thecommand handler provides the command to an image/preview handler 250. Ifthe command handler 220 determines that the command is a file downloadcommand, the command handler provides the command to a file downloadhandler 240.

Search Command Handler

A companion application 142A may comprise a search command handler 230.When a search command handler 230 receives a search command from acommand handler 220 including a search term (e.g., “university”), thesearch command handler frames a search query including the search termand provides the search query to one of the indexers selected for use(e.g., indexer 1, indexer 2). The search command handler 230 may alsoreceive the search results from an indexer and forward the results to aresult handler for processing and forwarding them to a client device(e.g., via 210).

Result Handler-Meta Data Module

A companion application 142A may comprise a result handler 280. A resulthandler 280 may comprise a meta data module 286 that can determine thetype of meta data associated with each file, each file folder and/or thecontent of each file or file folder found by an indexer. Meta data mayprovide description about the files or file folders found that arerelevant to the search. Meta data may include information about a fileor a file folder (e.g., creation date, author, size, type, icon, orimage of a file or file folder). Meta data may include information aboutthe content of a file or file folder (e.g., a preview (or“look-and-feel”) of the file content or file folder content, a thumbnailof the file content or file folder content, an image of the file contentor file folder content, any other partial view of the file content orfile folder content).

In one aspect, a meta data module may provide one or more indicatorsthat identify whether a file or a file folder has an associated icon, anassociated preview of the file content or file folder content, anassociated thumbnail of the file content or file folder content, anassociated image of the file, file folder, file content, or file foldercontent, and/or any other partial view of the file content or filefolder content (“image or partial-view meta data” or “image/partial-viewmeta data”). In another aspect, a meta data module may provide one ormore indicators that identify whether a file or a file folder has itscreation date, author, size and/or type (“text meta data”).

“Image or partial-view meta data” may be meta data that is relativelylarge in size. Image or partial-view meta data may be one or moreattributes (or descriptions) about a file, folder or the content of afile or folder, and it may be represented as an icon, image, audio,video or partial view of the content of the file or folder. “Text metadata” may be meta data that is relatively small in size and it may beone or more attributes (or descriptions) about a file or folder that canbe represented in text, rather than an image, icon, audio, or video.

In one example, if a file contains an essay, the file'simage/partial-view meta data may include a snip of the essay. If a fileis a picture of a bridge, then the file's image/partial-view meta datamay include a portion of the picture of the bridge showing a person'sface. A file's meta data may include a tag.

Result Handler-Clustering Module

A result hander 280 may comprise a clustering module 284 that can groupthe search results (e.g., the files and/or file folders found) based ona category identified by a user or by a companion application. Forexample, a clustering module may group the search results by file type,date, author or size. In one example, a clustering module may aggregateall word documents into one group. In another example, a clusteringmodule may aggregate all photo documents into one group. In yet anotherexample, a clustering module may aggregate all photo documents thatbelong to a selected person into one group.

Result Handler-Permission Filter Module

A result hander 280 may comprise a permission filter module 282 that canfilter the search result based on the permission criteria of a user of aclient device to allow transmission of the search result to the clientdevice only to the extent the search result meets the permissioncriteria. For example, if a user of the client device who initiates asearch query is permitted to access files only in certain directories ofthe remote source unit or files authored by the user, then thepermission filter module 282 allows only those permitted files to betransmitted from the remote source unit.

Icon Handler

A companion application 142A may comprise an icon handler 260. Uponreceipt of a command (e.g., from a client device via 210, 132), if acommand handler 220 determines that the command is a request for an iconof a file or file folder, the command handler 220 provides the commandto an icon handler 260. The icon handler may determine the iconassociated with the file or file folder in the file system 270 andfacilitate providing the requested icon from the file system 270 to theclient device (e.g., via 210, 132).

Image/Preview Handler

A companion application 142A may comprise an image/preview handler 250.Upon receipt of a command (e.g., from a client device via 210, 132), ifa command handler 220 determines that the command is a request for animage or a preview of a file or file folder, the command handler 220provides the command to an image/preview handler 250. The image/previewhandler may determine the image or preview associated with the file orfile folder in the file system 270 and facilitate providing therequested image or preview from the file system 270 to the client device(e.g., via 210, 132).

File Download Handler

A companion application 142A may comprise a file download handler 240.Upon receipt of a command (e.g., from a client device via 210, 132), ifa command handler 220 determines that the command is a request for afile download, the command handler 220 provides the command to a filedownload handler 240. The file download handler may identify the file inthe file system 270 and facilitate providing the content of therequested file from the file system 270 to the client device (e.g., via210, 132).

Other Types of Handlers

While not shown for brevity, a companion application may have othertypes of handlers. For instance, upon receipt of a command, if a commandhandler 220 determines that the command is a request for other types ofmeta data (e.g., audio, video meta data) of a file or file folder, thecommand handler 220 can provide the command to an appropriate meta datahandler (not shown), and such meta data handler can determine the metadata associated with the file or file folder and facilitate providingthe content of the meta data from the file system 270 to the clientdevice (e.g., via 210, 132).

Encryption/Decryption Module

A companion application 142A may comprise an encryption/decryptionmodule 290. Before transmitting information (e.g., a response to arequest such as a search result, the content of a file, an image, anicon) from a companion application to a client device (e.g., via 132),an encryption/decryption module 290 may encrypt the information so thatthe information can be kept secure during transmission. Furthermore, theencryption/decryption module 290 can decrypt information (e.g., arequest or command) received by a companion application from a clientdevice (e.g., via 132).

Example of Configuration of Client Device

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a client device in accordance with oneaspect of the subject technology. A client device (e.g., 120) maycomprise a search module 122 and a user interface (UI) 360. A clientdevice may have a memory (e.g., 319) that may communicate with each ofthe components shown in FIG. 3 and that may store various data andsearch results.

Client Network Interface Module

A search module 122 may comprise a client network interface module 310that facilitates communication to and from remote source units via,e.g., an auto discovery module 132 over one or more channels 126. Aclient network interface module 310 may provide information to a resultaggregator module 330, send/receive information to/from an actionhandler 350, send/receive information to/from a meta data cacher 340 andsend/receive information to/from a sign-in module 305.

Command Generator Module

A search module 122 may comprise a command generator module 320 that cancommunicate with UI 360. Upon receiving and determining that a searchterm is received from UI 360, a command generator module 320 may combinethe search term with a command to generate a search command andfacilitate providing the search command to a client device (via, e.g.,310, 132).

Result Aggregator Module

A search module 122 may comprise a result aggregator module 330. Inresponse to a search command, remote source units may provide the searchresults to the client network interface module 310 of the client device(e.g., via 132). Upon receiving the search results (via 310), a resultaggregator module 330 may aggregate the results received from all of theremote source units and sort, order and rank all of the results bycategory (e.g., by word frequency distribution of the search term in thefiles found, by remote source unit, by date, by author, by file type,etc.). The category may be selected by a user of the client device or bythe search module 122. The result aggregator module may aggregate, sortand rank the results immediately as received without awaiting allresults from all of the remote source units, and the result aggregatormodule may continuously update its aggregated, sorted and rankedinformation until it determines that all results from all of the remotesource units are received, aggregated, sorted and ranked.

The result aggregator module may rank the files and/or folders in thesearch result by sorting or ordering their associated search rankinginformation (e.g., word frequency distribution) or associated meta data(e.g., date, author, file type). The result aggregator module mayfacilitate providing the aggregated and ranked search results (e.g., thefile names and/or file folder names in the ranked order, any associatedaggregated search ranking information, and some of the associated metadata (e.g., text meta data that is relatively small in size) to UI 360for display to a user (e.g., utilizing memory 319 and/or meta datacacher 340).

Meta Data Cacher

A search module 122 may comprise a meta data cacher 340 that maydetermine whether a file or file folder in the search results has, or isassociated with, any “large” meta data. For instance, the meta datacacher 340 may determine whether a file or folder has, or is associatedwith, one or more of the image/partial-view meta data (e.g., an icon, animage, a preview) by examining the meta data indicators in the searchresults. The meta data cacher 340 may then determine whether the clientdevice has already received, from the remote source units, and cachedthe content of the meta data of the file or folder (e.g., an icon, imageor preview of a file or folder) in a memory.

If the meta data cacher 340 determines that the content of the meta datadoes not exist in the client device (e.g., 319) because, for example,this is the first time the associated file or folder is searched andfound, then the meta data cacher 340 may determine the applicable remotesource unit, formulate a command for requesting the content of the metadata (e.g., an icon, an image, a preview) from the applicable remotesource unit, and facilitate sending it to the applicable remote sourceunit (e.g., via 310, 132). Upon receipt of the requested content of themeta data, the meta data cacher 340 may cache the received content ofthe meta data (e.g., in 319) so that the meta data cacher 340 may simplyfetch and re-use it at a later time (rather than re-requesting it fromthe remote source units). This provides efficient remote computing.

If the meta data cacher 340 determines that the content of the meta dataalready exists in the client device (e.g., 319) because, for example,this is a second time the associated file or folder is searched, thenthe meta data cacher 340 is prevented from re-requesting the content ofthe meta data from the remote source unit(s) and simply fetches thecontent of the meta data from the memory of the client device.

The meta data cacher 340 may facilitate providing the content of themeta data (e.g., an icon or image associated with a file or file folder)to UI 360 for display to a user.

Action Handler

A search module 122 may comprise an action handler 350 that can monitora user's requested action(s) for a file(s) via UI 360 and facilitateperformance of the requested actions. For example, if a user requests afile found to be opened, copied, stored, attached to an email orprinted, the action handler 350 may determine that it is a request forthe content of a file, determine the applicable remote source unit,formulate a command for requesting the content of the file from theapplicable remote source unit, and facilitate sending the command to theapplicable remote source unit (e.g., via 310, 132). Upon receipt of therequested content of the file by the client device (e.g., 319), theaction handler 350 may facilitate performing the action requested by theuser for the file while utilizing other resources of the client device(e.g., opening and displaying the content of the file on UI, attachingthe file to an email or printing the file, etc.).

Encryption/Decryption Module

A search module 122 may comprise an encryption/decryption module 390.Before transmitting information (e.g., a command or request such as asearch command, a request for the content of meta data or the content ofa file) from a search module to remote source units (e.g., via 132), anencryption/decryption module 390 may encrypt the information so that theinformation can be kept secure during transmission. Furthermore, theencryption/decryption module 390 can decrypt information (e.g., aresponse to a command or request) received by a search module fromremote source units (e.g., via 132).

Remote Source Unit Privacy Hurdle Information

As shown, the client device 120 includes remote source unit privacyhurdle information 395. The remote source unit privacy hurdleinformation 395 may be configured to allow the client device 120 toaccess the remote source units 140. The remote source unit privacyhurdle information 395 may be stored in the long-term memory of theclient device 120 or entered by the user and stored in the short-termmemory of the client device 120. The remote source unit privacy hurdleinformation 395 may include login information, e.g., a username or apassword, or a certificate to access one or more of the remote sourceunits 140.

User Interface

UI 360 may comprise an input device (e.g., a keyboard, mouse,microphone, touch screen), an output device (e.g., a display, speaker,touch screen, printer) and/or interfaces (e.g., drivers).

Various Illustrations of Operations

Described below are various illustrations of facilitating searching ofdata on multiple remote computing devices in different levels of detailin accordance with various aspects of the disclosure.

Illustration 1

In accordance with one aspect of the disclosure, an exemplary operationof non-public data searching on multiple remote computing devices isillustrated.

Companion applications (e.g., 142A, 205) on the remote source units(e.g., 140A through 140N) report their availability to an auto discoverymodule (e.g., 132).

A client device (e.g., 120, 122, 305) signs into the auto discoverymodule.

The client device (e.g., 120, 122, 305) discovers the remote sourceunits automatically via the service provided by the auto discoverymodule without having to specify the locations or Internet Protocol (IP)addresses of the remote source units.

The client device requests an asynchronous search query (via the autodiscovery module) to all the remote source units (e.g., 140A through140N) that the client device has discovered from the auto discoverymodule. For example, when the client device transmits a single searchquery, in response the auto discovery module may transmit the singlesearch query to all of the remote source units simultaneously (ratherthan sending a query to remote source units sequentially one at a time).The client device can simply transmit a single search query to searchall of the remove devices, and the client device does not need totransmit a search query separately for each individual remote sourceunit.

Upon arrival of the search query, each indexer (e.g., 144A) of theremote source units uses the indexing based search algorithm to rank allthe documents/files in its respective remote source unit by relevance,and each companion application of the remote source units returns theresults to the client device via the auto discovery module.

The client device receives and aggregates the results according to itsranking sent by each remote source unit via the auto discovery module.The client device starts displaying the search results as soon as itobtains them from each of the remote source units.

The client device sends a second query, to the companion applications ofthe remote source units via the auto discovery module, to retrieveadditional information such as icons, meta data or more details (e.g.,previews, download) associated with the files and folders found, if theclient device does not already have such information. In one aspect,meta data comprises information about a file or a folder. In one aspect,meta data comprises information about the contents of the file or thefolder.

The remote source units respond back with the additional informationover the auto discovery module.

The client device receives the additional information and caches it forlater use.

Illustration 2

In accordance with one aspect of the disclosure, another example ofnon-public data searching on multiple remote computing devices isillustrated.

In one advantageous aspect, each companion application of a remotesource unit (e.g., an access module 206) may allow a search queryinitiated by a client device to access and search the non-public data onthe remote source unit without the intervention by theuser/administrator of the remote source unit, for example, by allowingthe search query to automatically bypass the firewall at the remotesource unit.

In one advantageous aspect, a companion application (e.g., an accessmodule 206) may determine whether a firewall is enabled at a remotesource unit. In general, when a remote source unit receives an“unsolicited” request to establish a connection (e.g., a communicationnot initiated or requested by the remote source unit) and if the remotesource unit has a firewall, the firewall blocks the initiation ofconnection. In this example, a companion application desires to allow arequest for connection initiated by the auto discovery module. Thus, ifthe firewall is enabled, then the companion application (e.g., 206) mayselectively disable the firewall for all communications directed to thecompanion application that are originated or initiated by an outsidesource (e.g., client device, auto discovery module that are outside theremote source unit). In another example, if the firewall is enabled,then a companion application (e.g., 206) may selectively disable thefirewall for all communication originated or initiated by the autodiscovery module and/or directed to the companion application.

In an advantageous aspect, this selective firewall disablement orexception (or selectively bypassing the firewall) can allow the clientdevice to have automatic access to the non-public data on the remotesource units without requiring the intervention of the users oradministrators of the remote source units to unblock every communicationdirected to the companion applications of the remote source units.

In one example, each companion application (e.g., 206) may performselective firewall disablement automatically at the time the companionapplication is installed on its respective remote source unit (e.g., forthe first time) and allow the selective firewall disablement to persistin its respective remote source unit so long as the companionapplication remains installed on the remote source unit. In anotherexample, a companion application (e.g., 206) may perform selectivefirewall disablement automatically whenever the companion application isstarted or running In one aspect, a companion application may performselective firewall disablement before the companion application reportsits availability to an auto discovery module.

In one advantageous aspect, when a remote source unit (e.g., 140A) ispowered on and a companion application (e.g., 142A) is running on theremote source unit, the companion application (e.g., reporting module205) may facilitate reporting of its availability to an auto discoverymodule (e.g., 132, 130). Similarly, the companion applications of otherremote source units may also facilitate reporting of their availabilityto the auto discovery module. In one aspect, a companion application(s)may automatically report its availability without requiring an action onthe part of a user. In one example, an companion application(s) mayautomatically report its availability upon startup of the remote sourceunit(s). In one example, an companion application(s) may automaticallyreport its availability at a regular interval if it is operational andavailable.

When a client device (e.g., sign-in module 305) signs into the autodiscovery module, the client device (e.g., 305) may automaticallydiscover the remote source units that are available without the usersearching or identifying the remote source units. The client device(e.g., 122, 305, 360) may automatically display on its display (e.g.,360 in FIGS. 3 and 4A) the remote source units that are available (see,e.g., 430 in FIG. 4A). When a user selects a search icon (e.g., 420A inFIG. 4A), the client device (e.g., 122, 305) may provide a search box(e.g., 420B) into which the user may enter a search term using, e.g., atouch-screen keyboard (e.g., 440 in FIG. 4A). In one advantageousaspect, all of the remote source units can be searched automaticallywithout the user selecting the remote source units. In another example,a user can choose to select only some of the remote source units forsearching.

A command generator (e.g., 320) may determine that a search term hasbeen entered at UI 360, generate a search command with the search term,and facilitate providing the search command to the remote source unitssimultaneously.

When the auto discovery module (e.g., 132) receives the search command,it may transmit a search command to all of the remote source unitssimultaneously.

Upon receipt, if a command handler (e.g., 220) of each remote sourceunit determines that the received command is a search command, then thecommand handler forwards the command to a search command handler (e.g.,230) of each associated remote source unit, which frames a search querywith the search term and provide the search query to an indexer (e.g.,indexer 1 or indexer 2) of each associated remote source unit.

An indexer of each remote source unit may search its associated remotesource unit (e.g., file system 270) using the search term. Depending onthe search options selected by a user, a search module or a companionapplication, an indexer may search the term in the file and foldernames, in the content of the files, and/or in the meta data of the filesand folders. An indexer may rank the files and/or folders found by itsmatch quality or other ranking category within its remote source unit oracross some or all of the remote source units. An indexer can providethe ranking information for the files and/or folders found.

A meta data module (e.g., 286) of each remote source unit may determinewhether a file/folder found is represented by one or more meta data.Some of the meta data may be large in size (e.g., icon or image), andthus the meta data module may generate a meta data indicator specifyingwhether a file/folder found is represented by a particular type of metadata. In this disclosure, this type of meta data is sometimes referredto as image/partial-view meta data for convenience.

A clustering module (e.g., 284) of each remote source unit may group thefiles/folders found into one or more groups depending on a groupingcriteria.

A permission filter module (e.g., 282) of each remote source unit mayfilter the files/folders based on the permission criteria of a user whohas made the search request so that only those files/folders authorizedto be accessed by the user are transmitted from each of the remotesource units.

In response to the single search command, a companion application ofeach remote source unit (e.g., 270, 230, 280) may facilitatetransmission, to the auto discovery module, of a search result includingone or more file names and/or folder names, associated search rankinginformation (e.g., number of matches found in each file, as generated byan indexer, if any) and associated meta data indicators (e.g., indicatoras to whether a file has an icon, as generated by a meta data module, ifany). The search result may include the content of certain meta data, ifany, that is small in size (e.g., author, file size, file type, filecreation date). In this disclosure, this type of meta data is sometimesreferred to as text meta data for convenience. The search resulttransmitted in response to the search query does not contain anyimage/partial-view meta data to improve efficiency of remote computing.

The auto discovery module may forward each of the search resultsreceived to the client device as soon as it is received.

A result aggregator module of a client device (e.g., 330) may aggregateand rank the search results as soon as they arrive and update theconsolidated and ranked search result until all search results arereceived.

A meta data cacher (e.g., 340) may determine whether the search resultsinclude any meta data indicators for image/partial-view meta data and ifso, may facilitate transmission of a request or command for the contentof such meta data to all applicable remote source units (via 132).

Upon receipt of the request or command, an applicable meta data handler(e.g., icon handler 260 or image/preview handler 250) at a remote sourceunit may facilitate providing the content of the requested meta data tothe client device.

Upon receipt, the meta data cacher of the client device may cache theretrieved content of the meta data (e.g., icon of a file).

As shown in FIG. 4B, upon completion of aggregating, ranking andretrieving the search results, the client device (e.g., 330 and 340) mayfacilitate displaying the consolidated and ranked search result (e.g.,460) for all remote source units onto UI 360. For example, as shown inFIG. 4B, a result aggregator module may facilitate providing to UI thefilenames (e.g., Filename 1, Filename 2, Filename 3) and certain metadata (small in size) associated with the files such as the associatednames of the remote source units where the files are found (e.g., Remotesource unit name of file 1, Remote source unit name of file 2, Remotesource unit name of file 3) and file creation dates (e.g., Date of file1, Date of file 2, Date of file 3) and associated word frequencydistribution for each file (e.g., Occurrence in file 1, Occurrence infile 2, Occurrence in file 3). A meta data cacher 340 may facilitateproviding to UI certain meta data (large in size) associated with thefiles such as the icons (e.g., Icon1, Icon2, Icon3).

When a user clicks on a filename (e.g., Filename 1) and selects a fileaction such as printing, attaching to an email or opening a file, anaction handler (e.g., 350) may detect the user action for the file,determine the applicable remote source unit, and facilitate sending acommand to the applicable remote source unit.

Upon receipt, a file download handler (e.g., 240) of the applicableremote source unit may identify and facilitate providing the content ofthe requested file to the client device.

Upon receipt, the client device (e.g., action handler 350) mayfacilitate performing the requested action (e.g., printing, attaching,opening the file).

In one aspect, all or some information may be encrypted for transmissionand decrypted upon receipt using, for example, encryption/decryptionmodules 290 and 390.

In one aspect, the remote source units may search, retrieve and transmitthe non-public search results to a client device all in real-time (e.g.,less than 1 hour, 30 minutes, 5 minutes or 1 minute depending on theamount of data searched) in response to a search query initiated by theclient device.

Illustration 3

In one advantageous aspect, an auto discovery server, remote sourceunits and a client device are different and separate apparatus andlocated remotely from each other. Referring to FIG. 4C, in oneadvantageous example, a client device is a hand-held mobile device(e.g., a user's mobile phone or portable tablet 470), an auto discoveryserver is a stationary computing server 471, and the remote source unitsmay be mobile or stationary computing devices. In one example, (notillustrated) the computing server 471 may be a component within theuser's mobile phone or tablet 470. In the illustrated example, theremote source units may include the user's desktop computer 472 at theoffice, the user's laptop computer 473, the user's desktop computer 474at home, a desktop computer 475 in a laboratory shared by multipleusers, and a cloud-based source unit 476 belonging to the user. Thecloud-based source unit 476 may be associated with an Internet-baseddocument, image, music, or video storage system. The cloud-based sourceunit 476 may be associated with an online store or an online socialnetworking service and may include content purchased from the onlinestore or content posted to the online social networking service. Theuser's data is stored in each of the remote source units behind afirewall.

Furthermore, each of the office desktop 472, the laptop 473, the homedesktop 474, the laboratory desktop 475, and the cloud-based source unit476 may be associated with a privacy hurdle that the computing serverneeds to overcome in order to access the content stored in source units472, 473, 474, 475, and 476. For example, to access data stored on theoffice desktop 472, the computing server 471 may need a corporatenetwork certificate and a username or password of the user. To accessdata stored on the personal laptop 473 and the home desktop 474, thecomputing server 471 may need login credentials to the user's homenetwork. To access data stored on the laboratory desktop 475, thecomputing server 471 may need a laboratory certificate. To access datastored on the cloud-based source unit 476, the computing server 471 mayneed a username and password of the user. The information needed toovercome the privacy hurdle may be stored on the user's mobile phone ortablet 470 or manually entered by the user via the mobile phone ortablet 470.

The user's data (e.g., files and folders) in the remote source units isnon-public data in that such data is not accessible to the public andnot searchable by a web search engine or web crawler. A copy of the datamay have been published on a web server or some of the user's datastored in a remote source unit may have been copied from a web site.However, the data as stored in the remote source units behind a firewallor other privacy hurdle, as set forth above, may not be publicallyaccessible or searchable.

The user's data (e.g., files and folders) in the remote source units ispersonal to the user as it may have been authored, created, stored,modified, printed, provided, copied, sent, received, viewed or otherwiseacted on by the user or on behalf of the user or may have been madeavailable to the user. In this scenario, a user may represent a groupthat the user belongs to or an organization or company of the user.

In one scenario, the user may have saved some word and presentationdocuments and emails on his office desktop 472, may have downloadedpictures and emails onto his laptop 473, may have saved drawings,pictures and games on his home desktop 474, and may have savedspreadsheets, drawings and analysis documents on the laboratory desktop475. When the user is on the road and needs to review file(s) on one ormore of the remote source units 472, 473, 474 and 475, the user cansimply sign into an auto discovery module in the computing server 471and input a search term to search all files in all of the remote sourceunits simultaneously using a single search query.

Various Illustrations of Advantages

According to various aspects, the subject technology may provide, amongothers, the following advantages and benefits:

Allows all remote source units to be searched with a single querywithout having to transmit vast amounts of information (“distributedsearch”). Previous approaches did not allow users to initiate adistributed search.

Enable the searching client to automatically aggregate all results intoone list of search results ordered by an arbitrary ranking system (e.g.,match quality) (e.g., simply based on a ranking criteria selected by asearch module without the user intervention or based on a rankingcriteria selected by the user).

The users do not need to initiate a remote session (e.g., using a remotedesktop protocol) to each remote machine. The search can be performedseamlessly on all available remote source units without the users havingto identify them or determine whether they are available. This was notpreviously possible.

Do not require a user to make a conscious decision as to what locationsshould be searched. All available remote source units can be searchedand the response to the user can be a consolidated view of the searchresults regardless of the location of the information.

Allow a user to access all the searched information. For example, theuser is able to open/view a file that was part of the search resultswhen the user simply clicks on the search results (e.g., without anyother actions by the user of the client device or by theusers/administrators of the remote source units).

In one advantageous aspect, the reporting in combination with otheraspect(s) of the subject technology can enable a client device (e.g.,122, 120) to automatically and simultaneously discover all of the remotesource units reported to the auto discovery module when a client device(e.g., 305, 122, 120) signs into the auto discovery module.

In one advantageous aspect, the reporting in combination with otheraspect(s) of the subject technology (e.g., signing-in) can allowsearching of non-public data on all of the remote source unitssimultaneously and seamlessly in real-time using a single search query.This can advantageously eliminate the need for the client device toinitiate a separate secure remote session log-on with each of the remotesource units (e.g., eliminate the need for a user to log in, search andlog out of each of the remote source units separately and sequentially).

In one advantageous aspect, the reporting in combination with otheraspect(s) of the subject technology (e.g., signing-in) can eliminate theneed for the client device to mount each of the remote source units ontothe client device and eliminate the need to transfer vast amounts ofdata between the remote source units and the client device over thebandwidth limited network channels.

In one advantageous aspect, the selective firewall disablement on theremote source units in combination with other aspect(s) of the subjecttechnology (e.g., reporting or other aspects) can allow automatic accessto the non-public data on the remote source units without jeopardizingthe security of the non-public data on the remote source units andwithout requiring user/administrator intervention. This alsoadvantageously allows a user of a client device to open, view, print,and/or attach a non-public file found in the remote source units bysimply clicking on the search result (e.g., one or two clicks).

In one advantageous aspect, the reporting in combination with otheraspect(s) of the subject technology (e.g., signing-in) can eliminate theneed for a user to make a conscious cumbersome decision as to whichremote source units should be searched.

In one advantageous aspect, the reporting by the remote source units canallow searching of the non-public data simultaneously with a singlequery regardless of the location of the non-public data or the remotesource units.

In one advantageous aspect, the signing-in by a client device to an autodiscovery module can allow searching of the non-public datasimultaneously with a single query regardless of the location of theoriginating source or the client device.

In one advantageous aspect, the reporting by the remote source units andthe signing-in and result-aggregating actions by a client device canallow a client device to automatically aggregate the non-public searchresults into one consolidated list for all search results from all ofthe remote source units ordered by a ranking system.

In one advantageous aspect, the search results include meta dataindicators (particularly for large meta data such as an icon or image)such that a client device (e.g., 340) can determine whether a file foundis represented with large meta data, and if so, retrieving such largemeta data and caching it so that it may be re-used without re-retrievingit from remote source units over the bandwidth limited network. Thisprovides efficient remote computing.

In one advantageous aspect, the reporting and the selective firewalldisablement in combination with other aspect(s) of the subjecttechnology can allow searching of original non-public data (rather thanweb pages that contain public data) located at multiple remote sourceunits simultaneously in response to a search query (rather thansearching copies of the non-public data that have been retrieved priorto making the search query).

Example of Computing Device

FIG. 5 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating an example of acomputing device.

A computing device 500 may be, for example, a client device 120, an autodiscovery server 130, or any of remote source units 140A through 140N. Acomputing device may comprise one or more computing devices.

A computing device 500 may include a processing system 502. Theprocessing system 502 is capable of communication with a receiver 506and a transmitter 508 through a bus 504 or other structures or devices.It should be understood that communication means other than busses couldbe utilized with the disclosed configurations. The processing system 502can generate audio, video, multimedia, and/or other types of data to beprovided to the transmitter 509 for communication. In addition, audio,video, multimedia, and/or other types of data can be received at thereceiver 506, and processed by the processing system 502.

The processing system 502 may include a general-purpose processor or aspecific-purpose processor for executing instructions and may furtherinclude a machine-readable medium 519 for storing data and/orinstructions for software programs. The instructions, which may bestored in a machine-readable medium 510 and/or 519, are executable bythe processing system 502 to control and manage access to the variousnetworks, as well as provide other communication and processingfunctions. The instructions may also include instructions executable bythe processing system 502 for various user interface devices, such as adisplay 512 and a keypad 514. The processing system 502 may include aninput port 522 and an output port 524. Each of the input port 522 andthe output port 524 may include one or more ports. The input port 522and the output port 524 may be the same port (e.g., a bi-directionalport) or may be different ports.

The processing system 502 may be implemented using software, hardware,or a combination of both. By way of example, the processing system 502may be implemented with one or more processors. A processor may be ageneral-purpose microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signalprocessor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), afield programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD),a controller, a state machine, gated logic, discrete hardwarecomponents, and/or any other suitable device that can performcalculations or other manipulations of information. Those skilled in theart will recognize how best to implement the described functionality forthe processing system 502.

Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, data, or anycombination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.Instructions may include code (e.g., in source code format, binary codeformat, executable code format, or any other suitable format of code).Instructions may be executable, for example, by a computing device(e.g., a client device, an auto discovery server or a remote sourceunit) or by a processing system (e.g., a processing system of a clientdevice, an auto discovery server or a remote source unit). Instructionscan be, for example, a computer program including code.

A machine-readable medium can be one or more machine-readable media. Amachine-readable medium (e.g., 510) may include storage external to aprocessing system, such as a random access memory (RAM) 550, a flashmemory 530, a read only memory (ROM) 540, a programmable read-onlymemory (PROM), an erasable PROM (EPROM), registers, a hard disk, aremovable disk, a CD-ROM, a DVD, or any other suitable storage device. Amachine-readable medium 519 may also have a volatile memory and anon-volatile memory. A machine-readable medium 519 may include storageintegrated into a processing system, such as might be the case with anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC). A memory may be amachine-readable medium (e.g., 510 or 519) or a part thereof.

According to one aspect of the disclosure, a machine-readable medium isa machine-readable medium encoded or stored with instructions and is acomputing element, which defines structural and functionalinterrelationships between the instructions and the rest of thecomputing device, which permit the instructions' functionality to berealized. In one aspect, a machine-readable medium is a non-transitorymachine-readable medium, a machine-readable storage medium, or anon-transitory machine-readable storage medium. In one aspect, amachine-readable medium is a machine-readable medium, a non-transitorymachine-readable medium, a computer-readable storage medium, or anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium. A non-transitory mediummay include one or more volatile and/or non-volatile memories.

An interface 516 may be any type of interface and may reside between anyof the components shown in FIG. 5. An interface 516 may also be, forexample, an interface to the outside world (e.g., an Internet networkinterface). A transceiver block 507 may represent one or moretransceivers, and each transceiver may include a receiver 506 and atransmitter 509. A functionality implemented in a processing system 502may be implemented in a portion of a receiver 506, a portion of atransmitter 509, a portion of a machine-readable medium 510, a portionof a display 512, a portion of a keypad 514, or a portion of aninterface 516, and vice versa. In one aspect, a computing device mayinclude only some or all of the elements shown in FIG. 5. A computingdevice may include other elements not shown in FIG. 5. A computingdevice may include more than one of the same elements.

Example of Network Systems

FIG. 6A is a diagram of an example of a network system. A system 600 mayinclude one or more computing devices 602 (e.g., client devices 120) forcommunicating with one or more computing devices 604 (e.g., remotesource units 140A through 140N) via one or more computing devices 608(e.g., auto discovery server 130) and one or more networks 606. Thenetworks 606 may be the same or different networks.

FIG. 6B is a diagram of another example of a network system. A system600 may include one or more computing devices 602 (e.g., client devices120), one or more computing devices 604 (e.g., remote source units 140Athrough 140N) and one or more computing devices 608 (e.g., autodiscovery server 130) for communicating via a network 606. In yetanother example, computing devices 604 may be connected in a serialfashion.

By way of illustration and not limitation, a computing device 602 canrepresent a mobile phone, a portable tablet, a hand-held device, alaptop computer, a thin computing device, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a portable computing device, or a suitable device with aprocessor. In one example, a computing device 602 may be a smartphone(e.g., iPhone™, Android™ phone, Blackberry™, etc.). In certainconfigurations, a computing device 602 can represent an audio player, agame console, a camera, a camcorder, an audio device, a video device, amultimedia device, or a device capable of supporting a connection to aremote source unit. In a preferred example, a computing device 602 ismobile. In one advantageous aspect, a computing device 602 is ahand-held device. In another example, a computing device 602 can bestationary. According to one aspect of the disclosure, a computingdevice 602 may be a device having at least a processor and memory, wherethe total amount of memory of the computing device 602 is less than thetotal amount of memory in a computing device 604 or 608. In one example,a computing device 602 does not have a hard disk. In one aspect, acomputing device 602 has a display smaller than a display supported by acomputing device 604 or 608.

In one aspect, a computing device 604 or 608 represents a computer. Inanother aspect, a computing device 604 or 608 may represent a laptopcomputer, a computing device, a virtual machine (e.g., VMware® VirtualMachine), a desktop session (e.g., Microsoft Terminal Server), apublished application (e.g., Microsoft Terminal Server) or a suitabledevice with a processor. In one example, a computing device 604 or 608is stationary. In another aspect, a computing device 604 or 608 can bemobile. In certain configurations, a computing device 604 or 608 may beany device that can represent a client device.

In one aspect, a computing device may include one or more computingdevices.

In one example, a first device is remote to a second device when thefirst device is not directly connected to the second device. In oneexample, a first remote source unit may be connected to a second deviceover a communication network.

When a computing device 602, a computing device 608 and a computingdevice 604 are remote with respect to one another, a computing device602 may connect to a computing device 608 over a network 606, and acomputing device 604 may connect to a computing device 608 over anetwork 606 via a network connection, for example, a modem connection, alocal area network (LAN) connection including the Ethernet or abroadband wide area network (WAN) connection including DSL, Cable, T1,T3, Fiber Optics, Wi-Fi, or a mobile network connection including GSM,GPRS, 3G, WiMax or other network connection. A network 606 can be a LANnetwork, a WAN network, a wireless network, the Internet, an intranet orother network. A computing device (e.g., 120, 130, or any of 140A-140N)on a network may be addressed by a corresponding network address, suchas, but not limited to, an Internet protocol (IP) address, an Internetname, a Windows Internet name service (WINS) name, a domain name orother system name. These illustrate some examples as to how one devicemay be remote to another device. But the subject technology is notlimited to these examples.

In one aspect, the terms “local” and “remote” are relative terms, and acomputing device may be referred to as a local computing device or aremote computing device, depending on whether a computing device is onone side of a network or on another side of the network.

For example, a client device may be referred to as a local device or aremote source unit, depending on whether a client device is describedfrom a client side (e.g., 120) or from a server side (e.g., 130) or aremote source unit's side (e.g., 140A). A remote source unit (e.g.,140A) may be referred to as a local device or a remote source unit,depending on whether a remote source unit is described from the remotesource unit' side (e.g., 140A) or from a client (e.g., 120) or serverside (e.g., 130). Similarly, an auto discovery server may be referred toas a local server or a remote server, depending on whether a server isdescribed from a server side or from a client side or a remote sourceunit's side.

Furthermore, an application running on a remote source unit may bereferred to as a local application, if described from a remote sourceunit's side, and may be referred to as a remote application, ifdescribed from a client side or a server side.

In one aspect, devices placed on a client side (e.g., devices connecteddirectly to a client device(s) or to one another using wires or a shortrange wireless connection (e.g., Bluetooth)) may be referred to as localdevices with respect to a client device 120 and remote source units withrespect to remote locations 140A through 140N or auto discovery server130. Similarly, devices placed on a remote location (e.g., devicesconnected directly using wires or a short-range wireless connection) toa remote source unit 140A may be referred to as local devices withrespect to the remote source unit 140A.

Web Browser Window Displaying Search Results

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a web browser window 700 displayingsearch results in accordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

As shown, the web browser window 700 includes a title bar 702, a closebutton 704, a search box 706, a search results counter 708, searchcontrol regions 710, 712, and 714, and a search results region 716.

The title bar 702 may include a title of a web page being displayed inthe web browser window 700, for example, “PRIVATE SEARCH SERVICE.” Inone example, the web browser window 700 may include one or more webbrowser tabs, and a title of the active tab may be displayed in thetitle bar 702.

The close button 704, when selected, may be configured to cause the webbrowser window 700 to close. The close button 704 may be selected, forexample, by clicking the close button 704 with a mouse, touching theclose button 704 via a touch screen, or clicking a hot key associatedwith the close button 704 on a keyboard.

The search box 706 may be configured to allow a user to enter a searchquery, for example, a text query. As illustrated, the user has enteredthe query “rabbit” in the search box 706. The user may cause a searchbased on the search query in the search box 706 to run, for example, byclicking the “Enter” or “Return” key while the text cursor is in thesearch box or by clicking a “Search” button (not illustrated).

The search results counter 708 may be configured to display a number ofsearch results found, based on the search query. As illustrated, thesearch results counter 708 indicates that five results have been found.It should be noted that five search results appear in the search resultsregion 716.

The search control regions 710, 712, or 714 may include one or moreradio buttons or check boxes configured to control the search. Thesearch may be directed to personal or non-public data sources, forexample, personal computing devices, personal cloud source units, acorporate intranet, a computing device shared by a small number of users(e.g., less than 100 users) that may not be accessible to the public atlarge, or a personal storage area within an email account, an onlinecalendar account, a social networking service, an online documentmanagement account, etc.

As shown, the search control region 710 allows a user to select whichpersonal or non-public locations are to be searched via a check boxinterface. The user may be able to direct the search to one or more of a“home desktop,” a “web-storage.com cloud drive,” an “ABC CorporationIntranet,” and a “biology lab computer.” The user may have access toeach of these sources and may have access to a privacy hurdle, e.g., ausername and password or a certificate, to access each of these sources.For example, the user may have a certificate for ABC CorporationIntranet and may know the username and password to accessweb-storage.com cloud drive. The certificate or username and passwordmay be stored in association with the web-browser window or the user mayprovide the certificate or username and password in response to a promptafter initiating the search. The prompt may appear in a web browserpop-up.

The search control region 712 allows a user of the web browser window700 to select whether the user desires the search results to includesfiles and folders or files only via a check box interface. The searchcontrol region 714 allows a user of the web browser window 700 to selectwhether the user desires to search based on filename only or based onfile text.

As illustrated, the search results region 716 includes a set of searchresults 718, 720, 722, 724, and 726. While five search results areindicated, the subject technology may be implemented with any number ofsearch results. A name, a location, a file size, and a date modified ofeach search result may be displayed. In one example, the search resultsin the search results region may be arranged according to an order,e.g., an order of relevance to the search query in the search box 706,an order based on the name, an order based on the location, an orderbased on the file size, or an order based on the date modified. Therelevance to the search query in the search box 706 may be calculatedusing any technique. For example, the relevance may be based on thenumber of times the text of the search query appears in the file or howfrequently the file is accessed. Alternatively, the search results 718,720, 722, 724, or 726 may be displayed according to an arbitrary order.In one implementation, the search results may be provided in real-timeand updated in real-time after more search results are found. Forexample, the client computing device displaying the web browser window700 may first receive search results 718 and 726 from the home desktop,and later receive search result 720 from web-storage.com. Upon receivingresult 720, the client computing device may facilitate updating the datadisplayed in the web browser window to include the search results 718,720, and 726. One example of a process by which a displayed set ofsearch results may be updated based on additional received searchresults is described below in conjunction with FIG. 12.

While web browser window 700 illustrates one format in which a searchquery may be entered and search results may be displayed, personsskilled in the art will, undoubtedly, recognize other formats in which asearch query may be entered and search results may be displayed. Forexample, a special purpose application, e.g., a mobile phone or tabletcomputer application, may be used to enter the search query and displaythe search results in place of a web browser window 700. Alternatively,the web browser window 700 may lack a search results counter 708 orsearch control regions 710, 712, and 714. In one implementation, theformat in which the search query may be entered and in which the resultsmay be displayed is determined based on one or more of the screen sizeof the client device, the hardware of the client device, or the softwareinstalled on the client device. For example, results may be displayed ina different format on each of a laptop/desktop computer client device, atablet computer client device, or a mobile phone/personal digitalassistant (PDA) client device.

Interface for Interacting with a Search Result

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of the web browser window 700 displayingan interface for interacting with a search result in accordance with oneaspect of the subject technology.

As shown, the user has placed a mouse cursor 802 over a region of theweb browser window 700 associated with search result 724“bunny-rabbit.doc.” In response to the user placing and holding themouse cursor 802 over the region associated with the search result 724,the web browser window may display an interface element, e.g., hovercard 804, for interacting with the search result 724. As shown, thehover card 804 includes a view link 806, an edit link 808, a print link810, and a share link 812. The view link 806, when selected, may causethe file associated with search result 724 to be displayed. The editlink 808, when selected, may cause the file associated with searchresult 724 to be presented for editing. The print link 810, whenselected, may cause an interface for printing the file associated withthe search result 724 to be presented or for the file associated withthe search result 724 to be printed via a default printer. The sharelink 812, when selected, may cause an interface for sharing the fileassociated with the search result 724 to be presented. The fileassociated with the search result 724 may be shared, for example, viaemail, via instant messaging, or via a local or long-range network-basedsharing protocol.

While the hover card 804 is one format in which the user may interactwith a search result, persons skilled in the art will recognize otherformats in which a user may interact with a search result. For example,the links 806, 808, 810, or 812 may be replaced with different links; aweb browser pop-up may replace the hover card 804; or clicking on thefilename of a search result may cause the file associated with thesearch result to open.

Process by which a Remote Source Unit including Non-Public Data may beSearched

FIG. 9A illustrates an example of a process 900A by which a remotesource unit including non-public data may be searched, for example,based on a request from a client device, in accordance with one aspectof the subject technology. The remote source unit may be one of multipleremote source units. The remote source unit may include one or more of aremote personal computing device, a corporate intranet, a network-basedsource unit for non-public data, e.g., a personal cloud drive, an emailaccount, an online calendar account, an online photograph source unit, asocial networking account, etc.

The process 900A begins at step 910A, where the remote source unitfacilitates reporting of availability of a companion application to anauto discovery module to enable a client device to automaticallydiscover the remote source unit and to enable the client device tosearch, in real-time, non-public data simultaneously on multiple remotesource units using a single search query. The auto discovery module maybe within the client device or external to the client device. Thecompanion application may be a non-public application. The single searchquery may include one or more search terms. The companion applicationmay also be configured to search the file system of the remote sourceunit or the data stored on the remote source unit in association with anaccount based on a search query. The search query may include one ormore search terms.

In step 920A, the remote source unit, while observing facilitation of asecure remote session log-on between the remote source unit and theclient device and obviating mounting of the remote source unit onto theclient device, enables automatic access to non-public data on the remotesource unit by the single search query directed to the multiple remotecomputing devices.

In step 930A, the remote source unit, facilitates receipt of the singlesearch query with the one or more search terms initiated by the clientdevice. In one example, the search term may be accompanied by additionalinformation, e.g., an indication whether only filenames or filenames andfile content are to be searched or whether only files or files andfolders are to be searched.

In step 940A, the remote source unit, in response to the single searchquery, facilitates searching, in real-time, non-public data using thesearch term. The non-public data that is searched may include non-publicdata stored in the remote source unit. The non-public data may beaccessible to a user of a client device, but not accessible to thepublic at large, e.g., a member of the public who does not know apassword that is known by the user or who lacks a certificate or tokenthat is stored on the client device. Real time may refer to, forexample, less than 1 hour, 30 minutes, 5 minutes or 1 minute dependingon the amount of data searched.

In step 950A, the remote source unit retrieves, in real-time, anon-public search result comprising one or more file names or foldernames, any associated search ranking information, and any associatedmeta data indicators. For example, if the search term is “rabbit,” theremote source unit may search for files having the string “rabbit” inthe file name, for example, rabbit.txt or bob-rabbit-x.jpg.

In step 960A, the remote source unit transmits the non-public searchresult in real-time. The remote source unit may transmit the non-publicsearch result either to the auto discover module (e.g., auto discoverymodule 132) for forwarding to the client device (e.g., client device120) in real time or directly to the client device. Real time may referto, for example, less than 1 hour, 30 minutes, 5 minutes or 1 minutedepending on the amount of data transmitted. After step 960A, theprocess 900A ends.

Device with Instructions for Process by which a Remote Source Unitincluding Non-Public Data may be Searched

FIG. 9B illustrates an example of a device 900B.

The device 900B may include instructions 910B to facilitate reporting ofavailability of a companion application of a remote source unit withinmultiple remote source units to an auto discovery module to enable aclient device to automatically discover the remote source unit and toenable the client device to search, in real-time, non-public datasimultaneously on the multiple remote source units using a single searchquery, where the companion application is a non-public application,where the single search query comprises a search term.

The device 900B may include instructions 920B to, while obviatingfacilitation of a secure remote session log-on between the remote sourceunit and the client device and obviating mounting of the remote sourceunit onto the client device, enable automatic access to non-public dataon the remote source unit, by the single search query directed to themultiple remote source units.

The device 900B may include instructions 930B to, while obviatingfacilitation of a secure remote session log-on between the remote sourceunit and the client device and obviating mounting of the remote sourceunit onto the client device, enable automatic access to non-public dataon the remote source unit, by the single search query directed to themultiple remote source units.

The device 900B may include instructions 940B to, in response to thesingle search query, facilitate searching, in real-time, non-public dataon the remote source unit using the search term.

The device 900B may include instructions 950B to facilitate retrieving,in real-time, a non-public search result comprising one or more filenames or folder names, any associated search ranking information, andany associated meta data indicators.

The device 900B may include instructions 960B to transmit the non-publicsearch result in real-time.

Device with Modules for Process by which a Remote Source Unit includingNon-Public Data may be Searched

FIG. 9C illustrates an example of a device 900C.

The device 900C may include one or more modules 910C to facilitatereporting of availability of a companion application of a remote sourceunit within multiple remote source units to an auto discovery module toenable a client device to automatically discover the remote source unitand to enable the client device to search, in real-time, non-public datasimultaneously on the multiple remote source units using a single searchquery, where the companion application is a non-public application,where the single search query comprises a search term.

The device 900C may include one or more modules 920C to, while obviatingfacilitation of a secure remote session log-on between the remote sourceunit and the client device and obviating mounting of the remote sourceunit onto the client device, enable automatic access to non-public dataon the remote source unit, by the single search query directed to themultiple remote source units.

The device 900C may include one or more modules 930C to, while obviatingfacilitation of a secure remote session log-on between the remote sourceunit and the client device and obviating mounting of the remote sourceunit onto the client device, enable automatic access to non-public dataon the remote source unit, by the single search query directed to themultiple remote source units.

The device 900C may include one or more modules 940C to, in response tothe single search query, facilitate searching, in real-time, non-publicdata on the remote source unit using the search term.

The device 900C may include one or more modules 950C to facilitateretrieving, in real-time, a non-public search result comprising one ormore file names or folder names, any associated search rankinginformation, and any associated meta data indicators.

The device 900C may include one or more modules 960C to transmit thenon-public search result in real-time.

Process by which a Client Device may Search Non-Public Data on MultipleRemote Source Units

FIG. 10A illustrates an example of a process 1000A by which a clientdevice may search non-public data on multiple remote source units inaccordance with one aspect of the subject technology. The client devicemay be signed into an auto discovery module (e.g., auto discovery module132). The auto discovery module may reside within an auto discoveryserver (e.g., auto discovery server 130) external to the client device.Alternatively, the auto discovery module may be a component in anapplication of the client device. For example, the auto discovery modulemay be a component within a web browser application or within a softwareapplication independent of the web browser.

The process 1000A begins at step 1010A, where the client deviceautomatically discovers the multiple remote source units via the autodiscovery module. The multiple remote source units may include physicalsource units, e.g., a remote laptop or desktop computer or a remote homeor office network source unit, or virtual source units, e.g., a clouddrive or a source unit in an email or social networking account. Theclient device may obviate identifying locations or addresses of themultiple remote source units by a user of the client computing device.For example, the client device may store the addresses of the remotesource units. Alternatively, the auto discovery server may store theaddresses of the remote source units. In one implementation, one or moreof the remote source units may be virtual source units (e.g., a clouddrive) that is not necessarily associated with a specific physicaladdress.

In step 1020A, the client device facilitates providing, to the autodiscovery module, of the single search query directed to the multipleremote source units to enable searching of the non-public datasimultaneously on all of the multiple remote source units based on thesingle search query while obviating initiation by the client device ofsecure remote session log-on with each of the multiple remote sourceunits onto the client device. In one example, each remote source unitmay be associated with a privacy hurdle. For example, a cloud drive mayrequire a username and a password to log-on. A remote office networksource unit may require a certificate or a token to log-on. Theinformation necessary to overcome the privacy hurdle, e.g., thecertificate, the token, or the username and password, may be stored onthe client device or on the auto discovery server in association withthe account of the user of the client device. As a result, the clientdevice or the auto discovery server may be able to access the remotesource unit.

In step 1030A, the client device, in response to the single searchquery, receives non-public search results in sequence or simultaneously.Each of the non-public search results may be associated with acorresponding one of the multiple remote computing devices. Each of thenon-public search results may include one or more file names or foldernames. The non-public search results may further include search rankinginformation or metadata indicators. Example search ranking informationmay include how often a search term appears in the search result or afrequency with which the search result is accessed. Example metadataindicators may include a location of the file, a file size, a date offile creation, file modification, or file access.

In step 1040A, the client device automatically aggregates, in real-time,the non-public search results from a plurality of the multiple remotesource units. The client device may aggregate the non-public searchresults from all or a portion of the multiple remote source units. Theaggregated collection of non-public search results may include resultsfrom two or more remote source units. Real time may refer to, forexample, less than 1 hour, 30 minutes, 5 minutes or 1 minute dependingon the amount of data aggregated.

In step 1050A, the client device automatically ranks, in real-time, theaggregated non-public search results. In one implementation, the clientdevice may rank the aggregated non-public search results according torelevance to the search term or the search query, e.g., by how manytimes the search term(s) in the search query appears in the file or by afrequency with which the file is accessed. In one implementation, theorder may involve interlacing search results from different remotesource units. Real time may refer to, for example, less than 1 hour, 30minutes, 5 minutes or 1 minute depending on the amount of data ranked.

In step 1060A, the client device facilitates displaying, in real-time,the ranked non-public search results. The search results may bedisplayed on a screen of the client device, for example, in a webbrowser window or in special purpose application window, for example, awindow of an application on a mobile phone or a tablet computer. Afterstep 1060A, the process 1000A ends.

In some aspects, a client device can request for more or additionalinformation (e.g., in step 1060A). This process may occur as needed bythe client device. For instance, a client device can request (e.g., anauto discovery module, or one or more remote source units) more oradditional information on one or more search results that were receivedinitially or thereafter. In response, the client device may receive therequested information (additional search results, or additionalinformation about one or more search results) from the auto discoverymodule or the remote source unit(s).

In some aspects, one or more remote source units (or each unit) mayreceive one or more requests for more or additional information. Forinstance, one or more remote source units (or each unit) may receive oneor more requests for more or additional information on one or moresearch results that were provided initially or thereafter. In response,one or more remote source units (or each unit) may provide the requestedinformation. As an example, one or more remote source units (or eachunit) may, by default, provide only the top 10 results to minimize theamount of traffic. One or more remote source units (or each unit) may dothis initially, and then provide the next 10 best results in response toeach subsequent request.

In some aspects, an auto discovery module may perform theabove-mentioned actions.

In some aspects, the client device may present subsets of files orfolders, in addition to or in place of files or folders, if the clientdevice has appropriate settings and/or permissions. For example, theclient computing device may present portions of a file (e.g., sectionsof a word processing documents) or file labels within a folder that areassociated with the search query. For example, if the search query is“elephant,” the search results may include a section in a document maybe titled “baby-elephant” and/or a label of files within a folder titled“elephant-safari.”

Device with Instructions for Process by which a Client Device may SearchNon-Public Data on Multiple Remote Source Units

FIG. 10B illustrates an example of a device 1000B.

The device 1000B may include instructions 1010B to automaticallydiscover, by the client device, the multiple remote source units via anauto discovery module while obviating identifying locations or addressesof the multiple remote source units by a user of the client device.

The device 1000B may include instructions 1020B to facilitate provision,to the auto discovery module, of the single search query directed to themultiple remote source units to enable searching of non-public datasimultaneously on all of the multiple remote source units based on thesingle search query while obviating initiation by the client device of asecure remote session log-on with each of the multiple remote sourceunits and obviating mounting of the multiple remote source units ontothe client device.

The device 1000B may include instructions 1030B to, in response tofacilitating provision of the single search query, receive non-publicsearch results in sequence or simultaneously, where each of thenon-public search results is associated with a corresponding one of themultiple remote source units, where each of the non-public searchresults comprises one or more file names or folder names, any associatedsearch ranking information, and any associated meta data indicators.

The device 1000B may include instructions 1040B to automaticallyaggregate, in real-time, the non-public search results from a pluralityof the multiple remote source units.

The device 1000B may include instructions 1050B to automatically rank,in real-time, the aggregated non-public search results.

The device 1000B may include instructions 1060B to facilitatedisplaying, in real-time, the ranked non-public search results.

Device with Modules for Process by which a Client Device may SearchNon-Public Data on Multiple Remote Source Units

FIG. 10C illustrates an example of a device 1000C.

The device 1000C may include one or more modules 1010C to automaticallydiscover, by the client device, the multiple remote source units via anauto discovery module while obviating identifying locations or addressesof the multiple remote source units by a user of the client device.

The device 1000C may include one or more modules 1020C to facilitateprovision, to the auto discovery module, of the single search querydirected to the multiple remote source units to enable searching ofnon-public data simultaneously on all of the multiple remote sourceunits based on the single search query while obviating initiation by theclient device of a secure remote session log-on with each of themultiple remote source units and obviating mounting of the multipleremote source units onto the client device.

The device 1000C may include one or more modules 1030C to, in responseto facilitating provision of the single search query, receive non-publicsearch results in sequence or simultaneously, where each of thenon-public search results is associated with a corresponding one of themultiple remote source units, where each of the non-public searchresults comprises one or more file names or folder names, any associatedsearch ranking information, and any associated meta data indicators.

The device 1000C may include one or more modules 1040C to automaticallyaggregate, in real-time, the non-public search results from a pluralityof the multiple remote source units.

The device 1000C may include one or more modules 1050C to automaticallyrank, in real-time, the aggregated non-public search results.

The device 1000C may include one or more modules 1060C to facilitatedisplaying, in real-time, the ranked non-public search results.

Process for Searching Non-Public Data and Displaying Search Results

FIG. 11A illustrates an example of a process 1100A for searchingnon-public data and displaying search results in accordance with oneaspect of the subject technology.

The process 1100A begins at step 1110A, where the client device receives(e.g., from the user) an input including a search query and identifiersof a plurality of remote source units. In one implementation, the searchquery is a text query. Alternatively, the search query may include oneor more of a text query, an image query, an audio query, or a videoquery. The remote source units may include, for example, a remotedesktop, a remote network source unit in an office, a cloud drive, or asource unit associated with a social networking service. Each of theplurality of remote source units may be associated with a privacyhurdle. For example, a cloud drive may require a username and a passwordto log-on. A remote office network source unit may require a certificateor a token to log-on. The information necessary to overcome the privacyhurdle, e.g., the certificate, the token, or the username and password,may be stored on the client device or on the auto discovery server inassociation with the account of the user of the client device.

In step 1120A, the client device transmits, to each of the plurality ofremote source units, a message including a search request based on thesearch query and an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdleof the remote source unit. For example, if the remote source unit is acloud drive that requires a username and a password for access, themessage to the remote source unit may include the search request basedon the search query and the username and the password for the account ofthe user in the service providing the cloud drive. The data transmittedfrom the client device to a remote source unit may pass through the autodiscovery server. Alternatively, the client device may transmit the datadirectly to the remote source unit.

In step 1130A, the client device receives, from each of the plurality ofremote source units, a respective set of search results. The searchresults may be based on the search query. Each of the respective sets ofsearch results may be received in real-time. Real time may refer to, forexample, less than 1 hour, 30 minutes, 5 minutes or 1 minute dependingon the amount of data to be searched and transmitted or the speed of aprocessor conducting the search. In one example, one or more of therespective sets of search results may have an order. For example, arespective set of search results may be ordered by edit date, frequencyof access, or relevance to the search query. The relevance to the searchquery may be determined using any known technique, for example, based onaccess frequency or based on the number of times the terms in the queryappear in the search result.

In step 1140A, the client device provides for display an indication ofat least a first subset of a first representative set of search resultsfrom a first remote source unit in the plurality of remote source units.For example, the client device may display a filename of one or morefiles in the first subset and an indication, e.g., a name, of the firstsource unit. The data provided for display may be displayed via a screenof the client computing device.

In step 1150A, the client device provides for display an indication ofat least a second subset of a second representative set of searchresults from a second remote source unit in the plurality of remotesource units. For example, the client device may display a filename ofone or more files in the second subset and an indication, e.g., a name,of the second source unit. The data provided for display may bedisplayed via a screen of the client device.

In one implementation, the end-user may place a cursor over a displayelement on the screen of the client computing device. Responsive to theinput indicating the cursor being placed over the display elementassociated with the file, the client device may provide for display ahover card. The display element associated with the file may include thefile name or a region of the screen associated with the file orinformation related to the file. The hover card may include one or morelinks for interaction with the file. Interaction with the file mayinclude viewing the file, editing the file, printing the file, orsharing (e.g., via email or instant messaging) the file. After step1150A, the process 1100A ends.

Device with Instructions for Process for Searching Non-Public Data andDisplaying Search Results

FIG. 11B illustrates an example of a device 1100B.

The device 1100B may include instructions 1110B to receive an inputcomprising a search query and identifiers of a plurality of remotesource units, where each of the plurality of remote source units isassociated with a respective privacy hurdle.

The device 1100B may include instructions 1120B to facilitatetransmitting, to each of the plurality of remote source units, a messagecomprising a search request based on the search query and an input forovercoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remote source unit.

The device 1100B may include instructions 1130B to facilitate receiving,from each of the plurality of remote source units, a respective set ofsearch results.

The device 1100B may include instructions 1140B to provide for displayan indication of at least a first subset of a first respective set ofsearch results from a first remote source unit in the plurality ofremote source units.

The device 1100B may include instructions 1150B to provide for displaythe indication of at least a second subset of a second respective set ofsearch results from a second remote source unit in the plurality ofremote source units.

Device with Modules for Process for Searching Non-Public Data andDisplaying Search Results

FIG. 11C illustrates an example of a device 1100C.

The device 1100C may include one or more modules 1110C to receive aninput comprising a search query and identifiers of a plurality of remotesource units, where each of the plurality of remote source units isassociated with a respective privacy hurdle.

The device 1100C may include one or more modules 1120C to facilitatetransmitting, to each of the plurality of remote source units, a messagecomprising a search request based on the search query and an input forovercoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remote source unit.

The device 1100C may include one or more modules 1130C to facilitatereceiving, from each of the plurality of remote source units, arespective set of search results.

The device 1100C may include one or more modules 1140C to provide fordisplay an indication of at least a first subset of a first respectiveset of search results from a first remote source unit in the pluralityof remote source units.

The device 1100C may include one or more modules 1150C to provide fordisplay the indication of at least a second subset of a secondrespective set of search results from a second remote source unit in theplurality of remote source units.

Process for Searching Non-Public Data From a Plurality of Remote SourceUnits and Displaying Search Results

FIG. 12A illustrates an example of a process 1200A for searchingnon-public data from a plurality of remote source units and displayingsearch results in accordance with one aspect of the subject technology.

The process 1200A begins at step 1210A, where the client device receives(e.g., from the user) an input including a search query and identifiersof a plurality of remote source units. The remote source units mayinclude, for example, a remote desktop, a remote network source unit inan office, a cloud drive, or a source unit associated with a socialnetworking service. Each of the plurality of remote source units may beassociated with a privacy hurdle. For example, a cloud drive may requirea username and a password to log-on. A remote office network source unitmay require a certificate or a token to log-on. The informationnecessary to overcome the privacy hurdle, e.g., the certificate, thetoken, or the username and password, may be stored on the client deviceor on the auto discovery server in association with the account of theuser of the client device.

In step 1220A, the client device transmits, to each of the plurality ofremote source units, a message including a search request based on thesearch query and an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdleof the remote source unit. For example, if the remote source unit is acloud drive that requires a username and a password for access, themessage to the remote source unit may include the search request basedon the search query and the username and the password for the account ofthe user in the service providing the cloud drive. The data transmittedfrom the client device to a remote source unit may pass through the autodiscovery server. Alternatively, the client device may transmit the datadirectly to the remote source unit.

In step 1230A, the client device receives, at a first time, from a firstsource unit in the plurality of remote source units, a first set ofsearch results.

In step 1240A, the client device provides for display an indication ofat least a first subset of the first set of search results within asingle display unit. For example, the client device may display thefilenames of the files in the first subset. The single display unit maybe, for example, a single tab in a web browser window. Alternatively,the single display unit may be a single application window, for example,in a mobile phone or tablet computer application. The data provided fordisplay may be transmitted to a screen of the client device to bedisplayed.

In step 1250A, the client device receives, at a second time later thanthe first time, from a second source unit in the plurality of remotesource units, a second set of search results. The second source unit maybe different from the first source unit. The second time may be anyamount of time later than the first time, for example, five seconds, tenseconds, one minute, five minutes, ten minutes, or one hour later thanthe first time. The time difference between the first time and thesecond time may depend on the relative processing speeds or file systemsizes of the first source unit and the second source unit.

In step 1260A, the client device provides for display an indication ofat least a second subset of the second set of search results within thesingle display unit, while continuing to provide for display theindication of the at least the first subset of the first set of searchresults within the single display unit. For example, the client devicemay display the filenames of the files in the first subset. The filesmay be displayed according to an order based on the relevance of thefiles to the search query e.g., by how many times the search term(s) inthe search query appears in the file or by a frequency with which thefile is accessed. In one implementation, the file names of the files inthe first subset and the filenames of the files in the second subset maybe interlaced with one another such that the files from both the firstsubset and the second subset are displayed according to the order ofrelevance to the search query. After step 1260A, the process 1200A ends.

Devices with Instructions for Process for Searching Non-Public Data froma Plurality of Remote Source Units and Displaying Search Results

FIG. 12B illustrates an example of a device 1200B.

The device 1200B may include instructions 1210B to receive an inputcomprising a search query and identifiers of a plurality of remotesource units, where each of the plurality of remote source units isassociated with a respective privacy hurdle.

The device 1200B may include instructions 1220B to facilitatetransmitting, to each of the plurality of remote source units, a messagecomprising a search request based on the search query and an input forovercoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remote source unit.

The device 1200B may include instructions 1230B to facilitate receiving,at a first time, from a first source unit in the plurality of remotesource units, a first set of search results.

The device 1200B may include instructions 1240B to provide for displayan indication of at least a first subset of the first set of searchresults within a single display unit.

The device 1200B may include instructions 1250B to facilitate receiving,at a second time later than the first time, from a second source unit inthe plurality of remote source units, a second set of search results.

The device 1200B may include instructions 1260B to provide for displayan indication of at least a second subset of the second set of searchresults within the single display unit, while continuing to provide fordisplay the indication of the at least the first subset of the first setof search results within the single display unit.

Device with Modules for Process for Searching Non-Public Data from aPlurality of Remote Source Units and Displaying Search Results

FIG. 12C illustrates an example of a device 1200C.

The device 1200C may include one or more modules 1210C to receive aninput comprising a search query and identifiers of a plurality of remotesource units, where each of the plurality of remote source units isassociated with a respective privacy hurdle.

The device 1200C may include one or more modules 1220C to facilitatetransmitting, to each of the plurality of remote source units, a messagecomprising a search request based on the search query and an input forovercoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remote source unit.

The device 1200C may include one or more modules 1230C to facilitatereceiving, at a first time, from a first source unit in the plurality ofremote source units, a first set of search results.

The device 1200C may include one or more modules 1240C to provide fordisplay an indication of at least a first subset of the first set ofsearch results within a single display unit.

The device 1200C may include one or more modules 1250C to facilitatereceiving, at a second time later than the first time, from a secondsource unit in the plurality of remote source units, a second set ofsearch results.

The device 1200C may include one or more modules 1260C to provide fordisplay an indication of at least a second subset of the second set ofsearch results within the single display unit, while continuing toprovide for display the indication of the at least the first subset ofthe first set of search results within the single display unit.

Virtualization System

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a local device virtualization system 1300,according to an aspect of the disclosure. The system 1300 may includethe client 1302 in communication with the server 1304, for example, overa network, e.g., network 606 in FIGS. 6A and 6B. The client 1302 mayinclude a proxy 1310, a stub driver 1320, and a bus driver 1330. Theclient 1302 can be connected to a device 1340, as shown in FIG. 13. Theserver 1304 may include an agent 1350, and a virtual bus driver 1360.

According to the illustrated configuration, while the device 1340 is notlocally or physically connected to the server 1304 and is remote to theserver 1304, the device 1340 appears to the server 1304 as if it islocally connected to the server 1304, as discussed further below. Thus,the device 1340 appears to the server 1304 as a virtual device 1390. Inone implementation, one or more of the remote source units 140 of FIG. 1may be implemented as a virtual device (e.g., virtual device 1390).

By way of illustration and not limitation, the device 1340 may be amachine-readable storage medium (e.g., flash storage device), a printer,a scanner, a camera, a facsimile machine, a phone, an audio device, avideo device, a peripheral device, or other suitable device that can beconnected to the client 1302. The device 1340 may be an external device(i.e., external to the client 1302) or an internal device (i.e.,internal to the client 1302).

In one aspect of the disclosure, the device 1340 is a Universal SerialBus (USB) device that can be locally connected to the client 1302 usinga wired USB or wireless USB connection and communicates with the client1302 according to a USB communications protocol. In another aspect, thedevice 1340 may be a device other than a USB device.

As used herein, a “local” device of a system, or a device “locally”connected to a system, may be a device directly connected to the systemusing one or more wires or connectors (e.g., physically connected to thesystem), or a device directly connected to the system using a wirelesslink (e.g., Bluetooth). For example, device 1340 is a local device ofclient 1302. Furthermore, in one aspect of the disclosure, a localdevice of a system or a device locally connected to a system may includea device within the system (e.g., an internal device of client 1302).

A “remote” device, or a device “remote” to a system, may be a devicethat is not directly connected to the system. For example, the server1304 is remote to both client 1302 and device 1340 because server 1304is not directly connected to client 1302 or device 1340 but connectedindirectly through the network, which can include, for example, anotherserver, or the Internet.

The bus driver 1330 can be configured to allow the operating system andprograms of the client 1302 to interact with the device 1340. In oneaspect, when the device 1340 is connected to the client 1302 (e.g.,plugged into a port of the client 1302), the bus driver 1330 may detectthe presence of the device 1340 and read information regarding thedevice 1340 (“device information”) from the device 1340. The deviceinformation may include features, characteristics and other informationspecific to the device. For an example of a USB device, the deviceinformation may comprise a device descriptor (e.g., product ID, venderID and/or other information), a configuration descriptor, an interfacedescriptor, an endpoint descriptor and/or a string descriptor. The busdriver 1330 may communicate with the device 1340 through a computer busor other wired or wireless communications interface.

In one aspect, a program (e.g., application) running locally on theclient 1302 may access the device 1340. For example, the device 1340 maybe accessed locally when the client 1302 is not connected to the server1304. In this aspect, the operating system (e.g., Microsoft Windows®) ofthe client 1302 may use the device information to find and load anappropriate device driver (not shown) for the device 1340. The devicedriver may provide the program with a high-level interface to the device1340.

In one aspect, the device 1340 may be accessed from the server 1304 asif the device were connected locally to the server 1340. For example,the device 1340 may be accessible from the desktop running on the server1304 (i.e., virtual desktop environment). In this aspect, the bus driver1330 may be configured to load the stub driver 1320 as the defaultdriver for the device 1340. The stub driver 1320 may be configured toreport the presence of the device 1340 to the proxy 1310 and to providethe device information (e.g., device descriptor) to the proxy 1310.

The proxy 1310 may be configured to report the presence of the device1340, along with the device information, to the agent 1350 of the server1304 over the network. Thus, the stub driver 1320 redirects the device1340 to the server 1304 via the proxy 1310.

The agent 1350 may be configured to receive the report from the proxy1310 that the device 1340 is connected to the client 1302 and the deviceinformation. The agent 1350 can provide notification of the device 1340,along with the device information, to the virtual bus driver 1360. Thevirtual bus driver 1360 may be configured to report to the operatingsystem of the server 1304 that the device 1340 is connected and toprovide the device information to the operating system. This allows theoperating system of the server 1304 to recognize the presence of thedevice 1340 even though the device 1340 is connected to the client 1302.The operating system of the server 1304 may use the device informationto find and load an appropriate device driver 1380 for the device 1340at the server 1304, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 13. As aresult, the device 1340 is enumerated on the server 1304. Once thepresence of the device 1340 is reported to the operating system of theserver 1304, the device 1340 may be accessible from the desktop runningon the server 1304 (i.e., virtual desktop environment). For example, thedevice 1340 may appear as an icon on the virtual desktop environmentand/or may be accessed by applications running on the server 1304.

In one aspect, an application 1370 running on the server 1304 may accessthe device 1340 by sending a transaction request for the device 1340 tothe virtual bus driver 1360 either directly or through the device driver1380. The virtual bus driver 1360 may direct the transaction request tothe agent 1350, which sends the transaction request to the proxy 1310over the network. The proxy 1310 receives the transaction request fromthe agent 1350, and directs the received transaction request to the stubdriver 1320. The stub driver 1320 then directs the transaction requestto the device 1340 through the bus driver 1330.

The bus driver 1330 receives the result of the transaction request fromthe device 1340 and sends the result of the transaction request to thestub driver 1320. The stub driver 1320 directs the result of thetransaction request to the proxy 1310, which sends the result of thetransaction request to the agent 1350 over the network. The agent 1350directs the result of the transaction request to the virtual bus driver1360. The virtual bus driver 1360 then directs the result of thetransaction request to the application 1370 either directly or throughthe device driver 1380.

Thus, the virtual bus driver 1360 may receive transaction requests forthe device 1340 from the application 1370 and send results of thetransaction requests back to the application 1370 (either directly orthrough the device driver 1380). As such, the application 1370 mayinteract with the virtual bus driver 1360 in the same way as a busdriver for a device that is connected locally to the server 1304. Thevirtual bus driver 1360 may hide the fact that it sends transactionrequests to the agent 1350 and receives the results of the transactionrequests from the agent 1350 instead of a device that is connectedlocally to the server 1304. As a result, the device 1340 connected tothe client 1302 may appear to the application 1370 as if the physicaldevice 1340 is connected locally to the server 1304.

Illustration of Subject Technology as Clauses for Remote Source Unit

Various examples of aspects of the disclosure are described as numberedclauses (1, 2, 3, etc.) for convenience. These are provided as examples,and do not limit the subject technology. Identifications of the figuresand reference numbers are provided below merely as examples and forillustrative purposes, and the clauses are not limited by thoseidentifications.

1. A method for facilitating real-time searching of non-public datausing a single search query, the method comprising:

facilitating reporting of availability of a companion application of aremote source unit to an auto discovery module to enable a client deviceto automatically discover the remote source unit and to enable theclient device to search, in real-time, non-public data on the remotesource unit using the single search query, wherein the companionapplication is a non-public application, wherein the single search querycomprises a search term;

while obviating facilitation of a secure remote session log-on betweenthe remote source unit and the client device and obviating mounting ofthe remote source unit onto the client device, enabling automatic accessto non-public data on the remote source unit, by the single searchquery;

facilitating receipt, at the remote source unit, of the single searchquery with the search term; and

in response to the single search query,

-   -   searching, in real-time, non-public data on the remote source        unit using the search term;    -   retrieving, in real-time, a non-public search result comprising        one or more file names or folder names; and    -   transmitting the non-public search result in real-time.

2. The method of clause 1, wherein the remote source unit is one ofmultiple remote source units, further wherein the single search query isdirected to each of the multiple remote source units.

3. The method of clause 2, wherein the auto discovery module isconfigured to enable the client computing device to simultaneouslysearch non-public data on the multiple remote source units.

4. The method of clause 1, wherein the single search query is initiatedby the client device.

5. The method of clause 1, wherein the remote source unit is associatedwith a privacy hurdle, wherein the method further comprises receiving,at the remote source unit, an input for overcoming the privacy hurdle.

6. The method of clause 5, wherein the privacy hurdle comprises one ormore of: a firewall, a login information verification module, acertificate verification module, or a token verification module.

7. The method of clause 5, wherein the input for overcoming the privacyhurdle comprises one or more of: login information, a username, apassword, a certificate, or a token.

8. The method of clause 1, wherein the facilitating reporting isperformed at least in part by a reporting module of the remote sourceunit, wherein the enabling automatic access is performed at least inpart by an access module, wherein the facilitating receipt is performedat least in part by a search command handler of the remote source unit,wherein the facilitating searching is performed at least in part by thesearch command handler, wherein the searching is performed at least inpart by an indexer of the remote source unit, wherein the retrieving isperformed at least in part by a result handler of the remote sourceunit, wherein the transmitting is performed at least in part by theresult handler, and

wherein the method comprises:

-   -   providing the single search query by the search command handler        to the indexer;    -   creating, by the indexer, a word frequency distribution        indicating how relevant the search term is to files in the        remote source unit, and    -   providing the word frequency distribution by the indexer to the        companion application,    -   wherein the non-public search result is associated with search        ranking information, and    -   wherein the search ranking information comprises the word        frequency distribution.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable medium for facilitating real-timesearching of non-public data using a single search query, themachine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed byone or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

facilitate reporting of availability of a companion application of aremote source unit to an auto discovery module to enable a client deviceto automatically discover the remote source unit and to enable theclient device to search, in real-time, non-public data on the remotesource unit using the single search query, wherein the companionapplication is a non-public application, wherein the single search querycomprises a search term;

while obviating facilitation of a secure remote session log-on betweenthe remote source unit and the client device and obviating mounting ofthe remote source unit onto the client device, enable automatic accessto non-public data on the remote source unit, by the single searchquery;

facilitate receipt, at the remote source unit, of the single searchquery with the search term; and

in response to the single search query,

-   -   search, in real-time, non-public data on the remote source unit        using the search term;    -   retrieve, in real-time, a non-public search result comprising        one or more file names or folder names; and    -   transmit the non-public search result in real-time.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, wherein thesingle search query is initiated by the client device.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, wherein theremote source unit comprises one or more of: a remote computing device,a cloud-based source unit, an email account storing email messages, anonline calendar account storing appointments, an online documentmanagement account, a social networking account storing socialnetworking content.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, wherein theinstructions to enable automatic access to non-public data on the remotesource unit comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to automatically andselectively disable a firewall at the remote source unit forcommunications directed to the companion application.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 12, wherein theinstructions to automatically and selectively disable the firewallcomprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the one or more processors to automatically and selectivelydisable the firewall when the companion application is installed on theremote source unit for the first time, and the firewall remainsselectively disabled while the companion application remains installedon the remote source unit.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 12, wherein thenon-public search result further comprises associated search rankinginformation and one or more one or more associated metadata indicators.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 14, wherein theone or more file names or folder names are one or more names of one ormore files or folders that match the search term in name, content ormetadata of the one or more files or folders in the remote source unit,

wherein the machine-readable medium further comprises instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to: in response to the single search query, identify metadataassociated with the one or more files or folders and identify metadataassociated with the content of the one or more files or folders,

wherein the metadata associated with the one or more files or folderscomprises one or more icon indicators of the one or more files orfolders,

wherein the metadata associated with the content of the one or morefiles or folders comprises of one or more preview indicators, one ormore thumbnail indicators, one or more partial content indicators, andone or more partial image indicators,

wherein an icon indicator indicates whether an icon associated with afile or folder exists in the remote source unit,

wherein a preview indicator indicates whether a preview associated witha file or folder exists in the remote source unit,

wherein a thumbnail indicator indicates whether a thumbnail associatedwith a file or folder exists in the remote source unit,

wherein a partial content indicator indicates whether a partial contentassociated with a file or folder exists in the remote source unit,

wherein a partial image indicator indicates whether a partial imageassociated with a file or folder exists in the remote source unit, and

wherein the one or more associated metadata indicators comprise at leastone of metadata associated with the one or more files or folders andmetadata associated with the content of the one or more files orfolders.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 14, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

after facilitating the transmission of the non-public search result,receive, at the remote source unit, a request for an icon associatedwith one or more files or folders of the one or more file names orfolder names, based on the one or more associated metadata indicators;

in response to the request for the icon, retrieve and facilitatetransmission of the icon to the auto discovery module for forwarding tothe client device in real-time,

wherein the non-public search result does not contain the icon.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 12, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

after facilitating the transmission of the non-public search result,receive, at the remote source unit, a request for a preview, athumbnail, a partial content or a partial image associated with thecontent of one or more files or folders of the one or more file names orfolder names, based on the one or more associated metadata indicators;

in response to the request for the preview, the thumbnail, the partialcontent or the partial image, retrieve and facilitate transmission ofthe preview, the thumbnail, the partial content or the partial image tothe auto discovery module for forwarding to a portion of the clientdevice in real-time,

wherein the non-public search result does not contain the preview, thethumbnail, the partial content or the partial image.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

after facilitating the transmission of the non-public search result,receive, at the remote source unit, a request for the content of one ormore files of the one or more file names;

in response to the request for the content, retrieve and facilitatetransmission of the content to the auto discovery module for forwardingto a portion of the client device in real-time,

wherein the non-public search result does not contain the content.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, wherein theinstructions to search comprise instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

identify the one or more file names or folder names of one or more filesor folders that match the search term in name, content or metadata ofthe one or more files or folders in the remote source unit;

compute the associated search ranking information based on wordfrequency distribution of the search term in the one or more files orfolders in the remote source unit.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: filter the non-publicsearch result based on a permission criteria of a user of the clientdevice to allow transmission of the non-public search result only to theextent the non-public search result meets the permission criteria.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: group the non-publicsearch result based on a clustering criteria.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: prior to facilitatingthe transmission, encrypt the non-public search result to enable securetransmission of the non-public search result.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, wherein theremote source unit is one of multiple remote source units, furtherwherein the single search query is directed to each of the multipleremote source units, further wherein the auto discovery module isconfigured to enable the client computing device to simultaneouslysearch non-public data on the multiple remote source units.

24. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 23, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

facilitate reporting of availability of a companion application of asecond remote source unit within the multiple remote source units to theauto discovery module to enable the client device to automaticallydiscover the second remote source unit and to enable the client deviceto search, in real-time, non-public data simultaneously on the multipleremote source units using the single search query;

while obviating facilitation of a secure remote session log-on betweenthe second remote source unit and the client device and obviatingmounting of the second remote source unit onto the client device, enableautomatic access to non-public data on the second remote source unit bythe single search query directed to the multiple remote source units;

facilitate receipt, at the second remote source unit, of the singlesearch query with the search term, wherein the single source query isinitiated by the client device; and

in response to the single search query,

-   -   facilitate searching, in real-time, non-public data on the        second remote source unit using the search term;    -   retrieve, in real-time, a second non-public search result        comprising one or more file names or folder names, associated        search ranking information, and one or more associated metadata        indicators; and    -   facilitate, in real-time, transmission of the second non-public        search result to the auto discovery module for forwarding to the        client device in real-time.

25. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 23, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

facilitate communication of the companion application of the remotesource unit within the multiple remotes source units with companionapplications of other remote source units within the multiple remotesource units.

26. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 23, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

facilitate communication of the companion application of the remotesource unit with companion applications of other remote source units,wherein the multiple remote source units comprise the remote source unitand the other remote source units,

wherein the instructions to facilitate communication compriseinstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe one or more processors to enable sharing of information includingsearch ranking information among the remote source unit and the otherremote source units,

wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processorsto update associated search ranking information based on search rankinginformation of the remote source unit and search ranking informationfrom the other remote source units.

27. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: rank files or foldersfound in the remote source units from the searching, wherein the rankingcomprises analyzing one or more of search term frequency distribution,date of creation of the files or folders, and relevance of the files orfolders.

28. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 9, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

traverse a file system of the remote source unit;

index files and folders or subsets of files and folders on the remotesource unit;

index contents of the files or subsets of the files on the remote sourceunit.

29. A system for facilitating real-time searching of non-public datausing a single search query, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

-   -   facilitate reporting of availability of a companion application        of a remote source unit to an auto discovery module to enable a        client device to automatically discover the remote source unit        and to enable the client device to search, in real-time,        non-public data on the remote source unit using the single        search query, wherein the companion application is a non-public        application, wherein the single search query comprises a search        term;    -   while obviating facilitation of a secure remote session log-on        between the remote source unit and the client device and        obviating mounting of the remote source unit onto the client        device, enable automatic access to non-public data on the remote        source unit, by the single search query;    -   facilitate receipt, at the remote source unit, of the single        search query with the search term; and    -   in response to the single search query,        -   search, in real-time, non-public data on the remote source            unit using the search term;        -   retrieve, in real-time, a non-public search result            comprising one or more file names or folder names; and        -   transmit the non-public search result in real-time.

30. The system of clause 29, wherein the remote source unit is one ofmultiple remote source units, further wherein the single search query isdirected to each of the multiple remote source units.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the auto discovery module isconfigured to enable the client computing device to simultaneouslysearch non-public data on the multiple remote source units.

32. The system of clause 29, wherein the single search query isinitiated by the client device.

Illustration of Subject Technology as Clauses for Client Device

Various examples of aspects of the disclosure are described as numberedclauses (1, 2, 3, etc.) for convenience. These are provided as examples,and do not limit the subject technology. Identifications of the figuresand reference numbers are provided below merely as examples and forillustrative purposes, and the clauses are not limited by thoseidentifications.

1. A method for facilitating real-time searching of non-public data onmultiple remote source units using a single search query, comprising:

automatically discovering, by the client device, the multiple remotesource units via an auto discovery module while obviating identifyinglocations or addresses of the multiple remote source units by a user ofthe client device;

facilitating provision, to the auto discovery module, of the singlesearch query directed to the multiple remote source units to enablesearching of non-public data simultaneously on all of the multipleremote source units based on the single search query while obviatinginitiation by the client device of a secure remote session log-on witheach of the multiple remote source units and obviating mounting of themultiple remote source units onto the client device; and

in response to facilitating provision of the single search query,

-   -   receiving non-public search results in sequence or        simultaneously, wherein each of the non-public search results is        associated with a corresponding one of the multiple remote        source units, wherein each of the non-public search results        comprises one or more file names or folder names;    -   automatically aggregating, in real-time, the non-public search        results from a plurality of the multiple remote source units;    -   automatically ranking, in real-time, the aggregated non-public        search results; and    -   facilitating displaying, in real-time, the ranked non-public        search results.

2. The method of clause 1, further comprising: signing into an autodiscovery module by a sign-in module of the client device,

wherein the automatically discovering is performed at least in part bythe sign-in module,

wherein the facilitating provision is performed at least in part by acommand generator module of the client device,

wherein the receiving non-public search results is performed at least inpart by a result aggregator module of the client device,

wherein the automatically aggregating is performed at least in part bythe result aggregator module,

wherein the automatically ranking is performed at least in part by theresult aggregator module,

wherein the facilitating displaying is performed at least in part by theresult aggregator module.

3. The method of clause 1, wherein the automatically ranking theaggregated non-public search results comprises associating each of aplurality of search results in the aggregated non-public search resultswith associated search ranking information,

wherein the method further comprises: automatically updating theassociated search ranking information for each of the plurality of thesearch results based on the aggregated non-public search results,

wherein the associated search ranking information in each of thenon-public search results provides search ranking among all files orfolders found in a corresponding one of the multiple remote sourceunits,

wherein the updated associated search ranking information providessearch ranking among all files or folders found in all of the multipleremote source units.

4. A non-transitory machine-readable medium for facilitating real-timesearching of non-public data on multiple remote source units using asingle search query, the machine-readable medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to:

automatically discover, by the client device, the multiple remote sourceunits via an auto discovery module while obviating identifying locationsor addresses of the multiple remote source units by a user of the clientdevice;

facilitate provision, to the auto discovery module, of the single searchquery directed to the multiple remote source units to enable searchingof non-public data simultaneously on all of the multiple remote sourceunits based on the single search query while obviating initiation by theclient device of a secure remote session log-on with each of themultiple remote source units and obviating mounting of the multipleremote source units onto the client device; and

in response to facilitating provision of the single search query,

-   -   receive non-public search results in sequence or simultaneously,        wherein each of the non-public search results is associated with        a corresponding one of the multiple remote source units, wherein        each of the non-public search results comprises one or more file        names or folder names;    -   automatically aggregate, in real-time, the non-public search        results from a plurality of the multiple remote source units;    -   automatically rank, in real-time, the aggregated non-public        search results; and    -   facilitate displaying, in real-time, the ranked non-public        search results.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 4, wherein eachof the non-public search results further comprises associated searchranking information and one or more associated metadata indicators.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 5, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

after receiving the non-public search results, automatically determine,by the client device, based on the one or more associated metadataindicators, whether one or more files or folders of the one or more filenames or folder names are associated with one or more image orpartial-view metadata, wherein the one or more image or partial-viewmetadata comprises one or more of an icon, a preview, a thumbnail, apartial content and a partial image associated with the one or morefiles or folders;

based on the determination, automatically facilitate provision of arequest to one or more corresponding remote source units, wherein therequest is for requesting the one or more image or partial-viewmetadata;

in response to the facilitating provision of the request, receive, bythe client device, the one or more image or partial-view metadata,

wherein the ranked non-public search results do not contain the one ormore image or partial-view metadata.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 5, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: automaticallyfacilitate caching, by the client device, the received one or more imageor partial-view metadata for later use.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 5, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: facilitate displaying,in real-time, the received one or more image or partial-view metadata.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 4, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

after executing the instructions to facilitate displaying the rankednon-public search results, determine whether a request is made, at theclient device, for the content of a file of the ranked non-public searchresults;

based on the determination, automatically facilitate provision of arequest for the content of the file to the associated remote sourceunit;

in response to execution of the instructions to facilitate provision ofthe request, receive, by the client device, the content of the file,

wherein the ranked non-public search results do not contain the contentof the file.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 4, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: facilitate, inreal-time, execution of at least one of the following instructions basedon the request: instructions to display, instructions to print,instructions to save, or instructions to attach to an email the receivedcontent of the file.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 4, wherein theinstructions to automatically rank the aggregated non-public searchresults comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: associate each of aplurality of search results in the aggregated non-public search resultswith associated search ranking information, further wherein theassociated search ranking information in each of the non-public searchresults is a representation of a word frequency distribution of a searchterm of the single search query found in files or folders in thecorresponding one of the multiple remote source units.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 4, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

after the automatically discovering, facilitate automatically displayinga representation of the discovered multiple remote source units;

receive an indication to initiate a search;

in response to the indication, facilitate displaying an input search boxto enable a user to input a search term;

receive the search term; and

generate the single search query based on the search term.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 4, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: prior to executing theinstructions to facilitate provision of the single search query, encryptthe single search query to enable secure transmission of the singlesearch query.

14. A method comprising:

receiving an input comprising a search query and identifiers of aplurality of remote source units, wherein each of the plurality ofremote source units is associated with a respective privacy hurdle;

facilitating transmitting, to each of the plurality of remote sourceunits, a message comprising a search request based on the search queryand an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remotesource unit;

facilitating receiving, from each of the plurality of remote sourceunits, a respective set of search results; and

providing for display an indication of at least a first subset of afirst respective set of search results from a first remote source unitin the plurality of remote source units; and

providing for display an indication of at least a second subset of asecond respective set of search results from a second remote source unitin the plurality of remote source units.

15. The method of clause 14, wherein facilitating receiving, from eachof the plurality of remote source units, the respective set of searchresults, comprises facilitating receiving, from each of the plurality ofremote source units, the respective set of search results in real-time.

16. The method of clause 14, wherein providing for display theindication of the at least the first subset of the first respective setof search results from the first remote source unit in the plurality ofremote source units comprises:

providing for display at least a filename of a file in the first subsetand an indication of the first remote source unit.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to:

receive an input comprising a search query and identifiers of aplurality of remote source units, wherein each of the plurality ofremote source units is associated with a respective privacy hurdle;

facilitate transmitting, to each of the plurality of remote sourceunits, a message comprising a search request based on the search queryand an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remotesource unit;

facilitate receiving, from each of the plurality of remote source units,a respective set of search results; and

provide for display an indication of at least a first subset of a firstrespective set of search results from a first remote source unit in theplurality of remote source units; and

provide for display an indication of at least a second subset of asecond respective set of search results from a second remote source unitin the plurality of remote source units.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 17, wherein theinstructions to facilitate receiving, from each of the plurality ofremote source units, the respective set of search results, compriseinstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe one or more processors to facilitate receiving, from each of theplurality of remote source units, the respective set of search resultsin real-time.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 17, wherein theinstructions to provide for display the indication of the at least thefirst subset of the first respective set of search results from thefirst remote source unit in the plurality of remote source unitscomprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the one or more processors to:

provide for display at least a filename of a file in the first subsetand an indication of the first remote source unit.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 19, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to:

receive an input indicating a cursor being placed over a display elementassociated with the file; and

responsive to the input indicating the cursor being placed over thedisplay element associated with the file, provide for display a hovercard, wherein the hover card includes at least one link for interactionwith the file.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 20, wherein thedisplay element associated with the file comprises one or more of: aregion on a display associated with the file or the filename of thefile.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 20, wherein theat least one link for interaction with the file comprises one or moreof: a link for viewing the file, a link for editing the file, a link forprinting the file, or a link for sharing the file.

23. A method comprising:

receiving an input comprising a search query and identifiers of aplurality of remote source units, wherein each of the plurality ofremote source units is associated with a respective privacy hurdle;

facilitating transmitting, to each of the plurality of remote sourceunits, a message comprising a search request based on the search queryand an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remotesource unit;

facilitating receiving, at a first time, from a first remote source unitin the plurality of remote source units, a first set of search results;

providing for display an indication of at least a first subset of thefirst set of search results within a single display unit;

facilitating receiving, at a second time later than the first time, froma second remote source unit in the plurality of remote source units, asecond set of search results; and

providing for display an indication of at least a second subset of thesecond set of search results within the single display unit, whilecontinuing to provide for display the indication of the at least thefirst subset of the first set of search results within the singledisplay unit.

24. The method of clause 23, wherein the single display unit comprises asingle tab of a single web browser window.

25. The method of clause 23, wherein the single display unit comprises asingle application window.

26. The method of clause 23, wherein the second time is at least fiveseconds later than the first time.

27. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to:

receive an input comprising a search query and identifiers of aplurality of remote source units, wherein each of the plurality ofremote source units is associated with a respective privacy hurdle;

facilitate transmitting, to each of the plurality of remote sourceunits, a message comprising a search request based on the search queryand an input for overcoming the respective privacy hurdle of the remotesource unit;

facilitate receiving, at a first time, from a first remote source unitin the plurality of remote source units, a first set of search results;

provide for display an indication of at least a first subset of thefirst set of search results within a single display unit;

facilitate receiving, at a second time later than the first time, from asecond remote source unit in the plurality of remote source units, asecond set of search results; and

provide for display an indication of at least a second subset of thesecond set of search results within the single display unit, whilecontinuing to provide for display the indication of the at least thefirst subset of the first set of search results within the singledisplay unit.

28. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 27, wherein thesingle display unit comprises a single tab of a single web browserwindow.

29. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 27, wherein thesingle display unit comprises a single application window.

30. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 27, wherein theinstructions to provide for display the indication of the at least thefirst subset comprise instructions to provide for display filenames offiles in the first subset, wherein the instructions to provide fordisplay the indication of the at least the second subset compriseinstructions to provide for display filenames of files in the secondsubset.

31. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 30, wherein theinstructions to provide for display the filenames of the files compriseinstructions to provide for display the file names of the filesaccording to an order of relevance to the search query.

32. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 31, wherein theinstructions to provide for display the indication of the at least thesecond subset of the second set of search results within the singledisplay unit, while continuing to provide for display the indication ofthe at least the first subset of the first set of search results withinthe single display unit comprise instructions to interlace the filenames of the files in the first subset and the filenames of the files inthe second subset according to the order of relevance to the searchquery.

33. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 27, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors,cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from a user, a request for additional information about one ormore members of the first set of search results or one or more membersof the second set of search results, wherein the additional informationis not provided for display in conjunction with the indication of the atleast the first subset of the first set of search results, and whereinthe additional information is not provided for display in conjunctionwith the indication of the at least the second subset of the second setof search results; and

provide for display of the additional information.

Other Remarks

In one aspect, any of the clauses herein may depend from any one of theindependent clauses or any one of the dependent clauses. In one aspect,any of the clauses (e.g., dependent or independent clauses) may becombined with any other clauses (e.g., dependent or independentclauses). In one aspect, a claim may include some or all of the words(e.g., steps, operations, means or components) recited in a clause, asentence, a phrase or a paragraph. In one aspect, a claim may includesome or all of the words recited in one or more clauses, sentences,phrases or paragraphs. In one aspect, some of the words in each of theclauses, sentences, phrases or paragraphs may be removed. In one aspect,additional words or elements may be added to a clause, a sentence, aphrase or a paragraph. In one aspect, the subject technology may beimplemented without utilizing some of the components, elements,functions or operations described herein. In one aspect, the subjecttechnology may be implemented utilizing additional components, elements,functions or operations.

In one aspect, any methods, instructions, code, means, logic,components, blocks, modules and the like (e.g., software or hardware)described or claimed herein can be represented in drawings (e.g., flowcharts, block diagrams), such drawings (regardless of whether explicitlyshown or not) are expressly incorporated herein by reference, and suchdrawings (if not yet explicitly shown) can be added to the disclosurewithout constituting new matter. For brevity, some (but not necessarilyall) of the clauses/descriptions/claims are explicitly represented indrawings, but any of the clauses/descriptions/claims can be representedin drawings in a manner similar to those drawings explicitly shown. Forexample, a flow chart can be drawn for any of the clauses, sentences orclaims for a method such that each operation or step is connected to thenext operation or step by an arrow. In another example, a block diagramcan be drawn for any of the clauses, sentences or claims havingmeans-for elements (e.g., means for performing an action) such that eachmeans-for element can be represented as a module for element (e.g., amodule for performing an action).

Those of skill in the art would appreciate that items such as thevarious illustrative blocks, modules, elements, components, methods,operations, steps, and algorithms described herein (e.g., 210, 220, 230,240, 250, 260, 280, 282, 284, 286, 142A, 144A, 310, 320, 330, 340, 350,390, and the components therein, or the blocks encompassing any of theforegoing) may be implemented as hardware, computer software, or acombination of both.

To illustrate the interchangeability of hardware and software, itemssuch as the various illustrative blocks, modules, elements, components,methods, operations, steps, and algorithms have been described generallyin terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality isimplemented as hardware or software depends upon the particularapplication and design constraints imposed on the overall system.Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varyingways for each particular application.

In one aspect, “means,” a block, a module, an element, a component or aprocessor may be an item (e.g., one or more of blocks, modules,elements, components or processors) for performing one or more functionsor operations. In one aspect, such an item may be an apparatus,hardware, or a portion thereof. In one example, an item may have astructure in the form of, for example, an instruction(s) for performingthe function(s) or operation(s), where the instruction(s) are encoded orstored on a machine-readable medium, on another device, or on a portionthereof, where an instruction(s) may be software, an application(s), asubroutine(s), or a portion thereof. In an example, an item may beimplemented as one or more circuits configured to perform thefunction(s) or operation(s). A circuit may include one or more circuitsand/or logic. A circuit may be analog and/or digital. A circuit may beelectrical and/or optical. A circuit may include transistors. In anexample, one or more items may be implemented as a processing system(e.g., a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.,or a portion(s) or a combination(s) of any of the foregoing). Thoseskilled in the art will recognize how to implement the instructions,circuits, and processing systems.

In one aspect of the disclosure, when actions or functions are describedas being performed by an item (e.g., receiving, determining, providing,generating, converting, skipping, displaying, notifying, accepting,selecting, controlling, issuing, transmitting, reporting, or any otheraction or function), it is understood that such actions or functions maybe performed by the item directly or indirectly. As an example, when amodule is described as performing an action, it is understood that themodule may perform the action directly or may perform the actionindirectly, for example, by facilitating such an action (e.g., enabling,causing, or performing at least a portion of an action).

Various items may be arranged differently (e.g., arranged in a differentorder, or partitioned in a different way) all without departing from thescope of the subject technology. In one aspect of the disclosure, theelements recited in the accompanying claims may be performed by one ormore modules or sub-modules.

In one example, items such as 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260, 280, 282,284, 286, 142A, 144A, 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, 390, the componentstherein, and the blocks encompassing any of the foregoing, may bearranged in a different order, connected in a different way or combinedin a different way. The functions of these items may be performed by theblocks as described above or by a combination of blocks or other blocks.Some of these items may be placed outside of its higher-level blocks.For example, items, 210, 290 and 206 may be placed outside a companionapplication 141A. In another example, items 310, 305 and 390 may beplaced outside a search module 122. In one example, an auto discoverymodule 132 may be implemented in one of the remote source units 140Athrough 140N. In another example, an auto discovery module 132 may beimplemented in a client device 120. In one example, an auto discoverymodule is utilized for establishing a connection as well as relaying allrequests, commands, responses and data among the client device andremote source units. In another example, an auto discovery module isutilized only for establishing a connection. For example, after theremote source units (e.g., 140A-140N) report their availability to anauto discovery module (e.g., 132), after a client device (e.g., 120)signs into the auto discovery module, and after the firewalls areselectively disabled (if applicable), the client device and the remotesource units may exchange their requests, commands, responses and datawithout utilizing the auto discovery module. In one example, a module ora block (e.g., 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260, 280, 282, 284, 286, 142A,144A, 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, 390) may represent one or moresubroutines encoded on a machine-readable medium, may represent circuitsfor performing the functions, or may represent one of the foregoing incombination with a portion of a memory.

It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps,operations or processes disclosed is an illustration of exemplaryapproaches. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that thespecific order or hierarchy of steps, operations or processes may berearranged. Some of the steps, operations or processes may be performedsimultaneously. The accompanying method claims, if any, present elementsof the various steps, operations or processes in a sample order, and arenot meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

The disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art topractice the various aspects described herein. The disclosure providesvarious examples of the subject technology, and the subject technologyis not limited to these examples. Various modifications to these aspectswill be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the genericprinciples defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, theclaims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, butis to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language claims andtheir legal equivalents, wherein reference to an element in the singularis not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically sostated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically stated otherwise,the term “some” refers to one or more. Pronouns in the masculine (e.g.,his) include the feminine and neuter gender (e.g., her and its) and viceversa. Headings and subheadings, if any, are used for convenience onlyand do not limit the invention.

A phrase such as an “aspect” does not imply that such aspect isessential to the subject technology or that such aspect applies to allconfigurations of the subject technology. A disclosure relating to anaspect may apply to all configurations, or one or more configurations.An aspect may provide one or more examples. A phrase such as an aspectmay refer to one or more aspects and vice versa. A phrase such as an“embodiment” does not imply that such embodiment is essential to thesubject technology or that such embodiment applies to all configurationsof the subject technology. A disclosure relating to an embodiment mayapply to all embodiments, or one or more embodiments. An embodiment mayprovide one or more examples. A phrase such an embodiment may refer toone or more embodiments and vice versa. A phrase such as a“configuration” does not imply that such configuration is essential tothe subject technology or that such configuration applies to allconfigurations of the subject technology. A disclosure relating to aconfiguration may apply to all configurations, or one or moreconfigurations. A configuration may provide one or more examples. Aphrase such a configuration may refer to one or more configurations andvice versa.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example orillustration.” Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” isnot necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otheraspects or designs. In one aspect, various alternative configurationsand operations described herein may be considered to be at leastequivalent.

All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the variousaspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or latercome to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expresslyincorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed bythe claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to bededicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure isexplicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construedunder the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, unless theelement is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in thecase of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase “stepfor.” Furthermore, to the extent that the term “include,” “have,” or thelike is used in the description or the claims, such term is intended tobe inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprise” as “comprise” isinterpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.

The Title, Background, Summary, Brief Description of the Drawings andAbstract of the disclosure are hereby incorporated into the disclosureand are provided as illustrative examples of the disclosure, not asrestrictive descriptions. It is submitted with the understanding thatthey will not be used to limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Inaddition, in the Detailed Description, it can be seen that thedescription provides illustrative examples and the various features aregrouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamliningthe disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed subject matter requires morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than allfeatures of a single disclosed configuration or operation. The followingclaims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with eachclaim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.

The claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects describedherein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with thelanguage claims and to encompass all legal equivalents. Notwithstanding,none of the claims are intended to embrace subject matter that fails tosatisfy the requirement of 35 U.S.C. §101, 102, or 103, nor should theybe interpreted in such a way. Any unintended embracement of such subjectmatter is hereby disclaimed.

1. A method for facilitating real-time searching of non-public datausing a single search query, the method comprising: facilitatingreporting of availability of a companion application of a remote sourceunit to an auto discovery module to enable a client device toautomatically discover the remote source unit and to enable the clientdevice to search, in real-time, non-public data on the remote sourceunit using the single search query, wherein the companion application isa non-public application, wherein the single search query comprises asearch term; while obviating facilitation of a secure remote sessionlog-on between the remote source unit and the client device andobviating mounting of the remote source unit onto the client device,enabling automatic access to non-public data on the remote source unit,by the single search query; facilitating receipt, at the remote sourceunit, of the single search query with the search term; and in responseto the single search query, searching, in real-time, non-public data onthe remote source unit using the search term; retrieving, in real-time,a non-public search result comprising one or more file names or foldernames; and transmitting the non-public search result in real-time. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the remote source unit is one of multipleremote source units, further wherein the single search query is directedto each of the multiple remote source units.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the auto discovery module is configured to enable the clientcomputing device to simultaneously search non-public data on themultiple remote source units.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thesingle search query is initiated by the client device.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the remote source unit is associated with a privacyhurdle, wherein the method further comprises receiving, at the remotesource unit, an input for overcoming the privacy hurdle.
 6. The methodof claim 5, wherein the privacy hurdle comprises one or more of: afirewall, a login information verification module, a certificateverification module, or a token verification module.
 7. The method ofclaim 5, wherein the input for overcoming the privacy hurdle comprisesone or more of: login information, a username, a password, acertificate, or a token.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein thefacilitating reporting is performed at least in part by a reportingmodule of the remote source unit, wherein the enabling automatic accessis performed at least in part by an access module, wherein thefacilitating receipt is performed at least in part by a search commandhandler of the remote source unit, wherein the facilitating searching isperformed at least in part by the search command handler, wherein thesearching is performed at least in part by an indexer of the remotesource unit, wherein the retrieving is performed at least in part by aresult handler of the remote source unit, wherein the transmitting isperformed at least in part by the result handler, and wherein the methodcomprises: providing the single search query by the search commandhandler to the indexer; creating, by the indexer, a word frequencydistribution indicating how relevant the search term is to files in theremote source unit, and providing the word frequency distribution by theindexer to the companion application, wherein the non-public searchresult is associated with search ranking information, and wherein thesearch ranking information comprises the word frequency distribution. 9.A non-transitory machine-readable medium for facilitating real-timesearching of non-public data using a single search query, themachine-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed byone or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: facilitatereporting of availability of a companion application of a remote sourceunit to an auto discovery module to enable a client device toautomatically discover the remote source unit and to enable the clientdevice to search, in real-time, non-public data on the remote sourceunit using the single search query, wherein the companion application isa non-public application, wherein the single search query comprises asearch term; while obviating facilitation of a secure remote sessionlog-on between the remote source unit and the client device andobviating mounting of the remote source unit onto the client device,enable automatic access to non-public data on the remote source unit, bythe single search query; facilitate receipt, at the remote source unit,of the single search query with the search term; and in response to thesingle search query, search, in real-time, non-public data on the remotesource unit using the search term; retrieve, in real-time, a non-publicsearch result comprising one or more file names or folder names; andtransmit the non-public search result in real-time.
 10. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the singlesearch query is initiated by the client device.
 11. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the remote source unitcomprises one or more of: a remote computing device, a cloud-basedsource unit, an email account storing email messages, an online calendaraccount storing appointments, an online document management account, asocial networking account storing social networking content.
 12. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein theinstructions to enable automatic access to non-public data on the remotesource unit comprise instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to automatically andselectively disable a firewall at the remote source unit forcommunications directed to the companion application.
 13. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein theinstructions to automatically and selectively disable the firewallcomprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the one or more processors to automatically and selectivelydisable the firewall when the companion application is installed on theremote source unit for the first time, and the firewall remainsselectively disabled while the companion application remains installedon the remote source unit.
 14. The non-transitory machine-readablemedium of claim 12, wherein the non-public search result furthercomprises associated search ranking information and one or more one ormore associated metadata indicators.
 15. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the one or more file namesor folder names are one or more names of one or more files or foldersthat match the search term in name, content or metadata of the one ormore files or folders in the remote source unit, wherein themachine-readable medium further comprises instructions that, whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processorsto: in response to the single search query, identify metadata associatedwith the one or more files or folders and identify metadata associatedwith the content of the one or more files or folders, wherein themetadata associated with the one or more files or folders comprises oneor more icon indicators of the one or more files or folders, wherein themetadata associated with the content of the one or more files or folderscomprises of one or more preview indicators, one or more thumbnailindicators, one or more partial content indicators, and one or morepartial image indicators, wherein an icon indicator indicates whether anicon associated with a file or folder exists in the remote source unit,wherein a preview indicator indicates whether a preview associated witha file or folder exists in the remote source unit, wherein a thumbnailindicator indicates whether a thumbnail associated with a file or folderexists in the remote source unit, wherein a partial content indicatorindicates whether a partial content associated with a file or folderexists in the remote source unit, wherein a partial image indicatorindicates whether a partial image associated with a file or folderexists in the remote source unit, and wherein the one or more associatedmetadata indicators comprise at least one of metadata associated withthe one or more files or folders and metadata associated with thecontent of the one or more files or folders.
 16. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising instructionsthat, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to: after facilitating the transmission of the non-publicsearch result, receive, at the remote source unit, a request for an iconassociated with one or more files or folders of the one or more filenames or folder names, based on the one or more associated metadataindicators; in response to the request for the icon, retrieve andfacilitate transmission of the icon to the auto discovery module forforwarding to the client device in real-time, wherein the non-publicsearch result does not contain the icon.
 17. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructionsthat, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to: after facilitating the transmission of the non-publicsearch result, receive, at the remote source unit, a request for apreview, a thumbnail, a partial content or a partial image associatedwith the content of one or more files or folders of the one or more filenames or folder names, based on the one or more associated metadataindicators; in response to the request for the preview, the thumbnail,the partial content or the partial image, retrieve and facilitatetransmission of the preview, the thumbnail, the partial content or thepartial image to the auto discovery module for forwarding to a portionof the client device in real-time, wherein the non-public search resultdoes not contain the preview, the thumbnail, the partial content or thepartial image.
 18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim9, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one ormore processors, cause the one or more processors to: after facilitatingthe transmission of the non-public search result, receive, at the remotesource unit, a request for the content of one or more files of the oneor more file names; in response to the request for the content, retrieveand facilitate transmission of the content to the auto discovery modulefor forwarding to a portion of the client device in real-time, whereinthe non-public search result does not contain the content.
 19. Thenon-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein theinstructions to search comprise instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: identifythe one or more file names or folder names of one or more files orfolders that match the search term in name, content or metadata of theone or more files or folders in the remote source unit; compute theassociated search ranking information based on word frequencydistribution of the search term in the one or more files or folders inthe remote source unit.
 20. The non-transitory machine-readable mediumof claim 9, further comprising instructions that, when executed by theone or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: filter thenon-public search result based on a permission criteria of a user of theclient device to allow transmission of the non-public search result onlyto the extent the non-public search result meets the permissioncriteria.
 21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9,further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: group the non-publicsearch result based on a clustering criteria.
 22. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructionsthat, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to: prior to facilitating the transmission, encrypt thenon-public search result to enable secure transmission of the non-publicsearch result.
 23. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim9, wherein the remote source unit is one of multiple remote sourceunits, further wherein the single search query is directed to each ofthe multiple remote source units, further wherein the auto discoverymodule is configured to enable the client computing device tosimultaneously search non-public data on the multiple remote sourceunits.
 24. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 23,further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: facilitate reporting ofavailability of a companion application of a second remote source unitwithin the multiple remote source units to the auto discovery module toenable the client device to automatically discover the second remotesource unit and to enable the client device to search, in real-time,non-public data simultaneously on the multiple remote source units usingthe single search query; while obviating facilitation of a secure remotesession log-on between the second remote source unit and the clientdevice and obviating mounting of the second remote source unit onto theclient device, enable automatic access to non-public data on the secondremote source unit by the single search query directed to the multipleremote source units; facilitate receipt, at the second remote sourceunit, of the single search query with the search term, wherein thesingle source query is initiated by the client device; and in responseto the single search query, facilitate searching, in real-time,non-public data on the second remote source unit using the search term;retrieve, in real-time, a second non-public search result comprising oneor more file names or folder names, associated search rankinginformation, and one or more associated metadata indicators; andfacilitate, in real-time, transmission of the second non-public searchresult to the auto discovery module for forwarding to the client devicein real-time.
 25. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim23, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one ormore processors, cause the one or more processors to: facilitatecommunication of the companion application of the remote source unitwithin the multiple remotes source units with companion applications ofother remote source units within the multiple remote source units. 26.The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 23, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: facilitatecommunication of the companion application of the remote source unitwith companion applications of other remote source units, wherein themultiple remote source units comprise the remote source unit and theother remote source units, wherein the instructions to facilitatecommunication comprise instructions that, when executed by the one ormore processors, cause the one or more processors to enable sharing ofinformation including search ranking information among the remote sourceunit and the other remote source units, wherein the instructions furthercomprise instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,cause the one or more processors to update associated search rankinginformation based on search ranking information of the remote sourceunit and search ranking information from the other remote source units.27. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: rank files or foldersfound in the remote source units from the searching, wherein the rankingcomprises analyzing one or more of search term frequency distribution,date of creation of the files or folders, and relevance of the files orfolders.
 28. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9,further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: traverse a file systemof the remote source unit; index files and folders or subsets of filesand folders on the remote source unit; index contents of the files orsubsets of the files on the remote source unit.
 29. A system forfacilitating real-time searching of non-public data using a singlesearch query, the system comprising: one or more processors; and amemory comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to: facilitate reporting ofavailability of a companion application of a remote source unit to anauto discovery module to enable a client device to automaticallydiscover the remote source unit and to enable the client device tosearch, in real-time, non-public data on the remote source unit usingthe single search query, wherein the companion application is anon-public application, wherein the single search query comprises asearch term; while obviating facilitation of a secure remote sessionlog-on between the remote source unit and the client device andobviating mounting of the remote source unit onto the client device,enable automatic access to non-public data on the remote source unit, bythe single search query; facilitate receipt, at the remote source unit,of the single search query with the search term; and in response to thesingle search query, search, in real-time, non-public data on the remotesource unit using the search term; retrieve, in real-time, a non-publicsearch result comprising one or more file names or folder names; andtransmit the non-public search result in real-time.
 30. The system ofclaim 29, wherein the remote source unit is one of multiple remotesource units, further wherein the single search query is directed toeach of the multiple remote source units.
 31. The system of clam 30,wherein the auto discovery module is configured to enable the clientcomputing device to simultaneously search non-public data on themultiple remote source units.
 32. The system of claim 29, wherein thesingle search query is initiated by the client device.